Reaping Shadows
by RinoKuro
Summary: Rex Goodwin tried to use The Crimson Dragons power to change the world. To say the least, it did not appreciate his efforts. So... it decided to get back at him. Now, a walking force of mayhem has been unleashed onto the city of Neo Domino with specific instructions to cause as much chaos as possible. And who is she to refuse such an invitation? T for cursing and implications.
1. SET!

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything (only my beloven phone Ivano, Boris the laptop and a secret stash of junk-food in my wardrobe). Everything ever used in the story belong to their rightful owners, except the OCs. Don't even think of touching my preciousssss~ ಠxಠ**

* * *

In the endless abyss that is known as the Void surrounded by countless mirrors floated a being of immense power. Some called it a god, others a devil, but if anyone ever bothered to ask, it would probably answer with "a universal cleaner". Not that anyone did or dared, for that matter. Sure, it was fun at first but the whole godhood business got old pretty quickly once you realized just how tedious it actually is. Get worshipped, do nothing for years, be cursed and shouted at for no reason, then save the world from some cliché dark force, get worshipped again and repeat. Tedious. Tedious and troublesome. Why couldn't they find somebody else to do this job? But we're getting off topic here.

The being, known as the Dragon Star, was frowning. So, another human wants to usurp its physical manifestations power. The god snorted before narrowing its eyes. While many tried, none have come as close as this one. The being had to applaud, this human's, this Rex Goodwin's, plan was quite ingenious. Using and manipulating its Signers, gaining the powers of a Signer and Dark Signer and then, to top it all off, use said powers to control its representation and remake the world. Simple, effective and ingenious. But also annoying, unoriginal and risky, with high possibility of universal annihilation. And that's something the god would rather avoid.

No, this needed to be stopped… or at least altered. And while it could just appear in front of the volatile human's headquarters in its whole burning crimson glory and just burn everything to crisp, this would cause a lot of unnecessary problems. It needed something subtler. Something… like an agent.

As the being mused it shifted its gaze onto one of the many mirrors around it. Slowly its eyes gained a gleam that would make a certain dimension hopping bloodsucker cackle in glee.

' _Oh, this could work.'_

* * *

It was a normal sunny day in a busy city of Tokyo. People were going around doing their business, students laughing here and there after a day in school, cars passing one another in a hurry, even birds were just that, simple avians cheerfully chirping a song only they knew of. Nothing out of the ordinary… Except for a human sized red vortex currently lazily spinning in residential area, in front of a mildly confused teenager. _  
_

Said teenager was simply standing and staring right back at it. Fortunately, the one sided staring contest didn't last long. Blinking a couple of times and sure enough, there really is some sort of red floating thing in front of her, the girl decided that some thinking was in order.

 _'Let's see, I got up today, showered, had a sandwich for breakfast, walked to school, greeted classmates, spent most of the day surfing the net and pretending I'm listening, had lunch, bought a cup of coffee on the way home and… ran into some sort of portal. Maybe I ate something?'_

Hoping that that wasn't the case, the young woman silently patted her stomach and nodded when she felt no pain.

 _'Not food poisoning.'_

The girl shuddered lightly, but quickly composed herself once more and looked back at the still spinning vortex.

 _'Hallucinations caused by overexposure to sun and heat?'_

She snorted at the thought. Sure, it was warm but not that hot. Besides today she had chosen to wear her leather pants, converse, a spaghetti strap black tank top and a short black leather jacket that reached just below her bust with a hood, a hood that was currently hiding her face from said sun and thus preventing any heat from affecting her. And it was March, not exactly the warmest of months. She shook her head. Nope, not a viable idea.

After racking her brain for any more possible logical explanations and ending up denying or finding flaws in every single one of them the student finally gave up and went for the impossible.

 _'…Aliens?'_

A light frown made itself known before she carefully set down her bag, pulled out her wallet and took out her student id. Sharp green eyes narrowed under the hood as they scanned the plastic card.

' _Hoshikoka Akira, age 17, High school student at Tokyo metropolitan High, member of science and technology club.'_

Akira paused and looked closely at the photo where an exact same set of eyes stared right back at her with similar intensity, taking in every detail.

 _'Pale skin, heart shaped face, pointed chin, a small indent in it, small nose and thin lips, sharp toxic green eyes that seem a little too big and jaw length spiked up black hair with two toxic green bangs framing either side of the face. Yep, all there.'_

The high schooler then proceeded to flip the card over a few times before catching sight of a reflective glyph on its side, signifying its authenticity. She briefly observes how the images changed with movement before returning the id to the wallet and into the bag. The girl straitened and once again stared at the vortex.

 _'Not aliens, too detailed.'_

Slowly the teens confusion bled away and was replaced with curiosity. She briefly considered poking it before remembering that weird anime she watched some years ago and shuddered. Oh no, no way is she getting sucked into some parallel universe where magic is real, people ride horses and resides an annoying pink haired tsundere with attitude problems, not to mention the general population. That's something she would rather avoid… very much. Besides, there were no sticks around.

Slowly and cautiously Akira started to back away from the portal. Just as she turned around and was about to high tail, the vortex emitted a sound not unlike the one you usually hear from a vacuum cleaner, a very strong wind blew her off balance and before she knew it she was falling right through the portal, her vision turning red and consciousness slipping.

Right before blacking out Akira managed to promise in her mind.

 _'Whoever is responsible for this better have a good explanation or I'm driving them insane the second I get a chance… especially if it's the tsundere.'_

And with that Akira disappeared from the face of the known Earth for a very long time. The crimson portal stayed a few more seconds before flickering out of existence, it's job done, leaving no evidence of what has transpired behind.

* * *

Akira very slowly started the process of returning to the world of the waking. First came the sense of touch and balance. Her mind briefly flickered with confusion when she felt no pressure on her back as judging by her position she was laying, but she was still too out of it see it as a serious problem. Second came the sense of smell, which didn't really help, because she didn't pick up any distinct scent. Then her hearing returned. She could hear a faint sound of something flickering, suspiciously reminding her of the sound fire makes. Finally came her sight, her vision was colored bright red while darkness danced at the edge of her eyes.

The girl didn't dare open her eyes. Oh she knew there was something very bright in front of her. Key word something. She had no idea what that something is and didn't really want to find out. Now that she was fully awake and aware she knew the situation was very wrong. First, some kind of red vortex portal thing appears in front of her in the middle of a street. Then she gets sucked into it, falling unconscious and being transported who knows where in the process. Finally, there is SOMETHING in front of her. She really hopes it's a lamp and she's in an interrogation room where a mean looking cop is sitting in front of her behind a table and waiting for her to wake up to question the living daylight out of her.

 _'Whatever it is, I'll just pretend I'm asleep and maybe it will go aw-'_

"You can now stop pretending you're asleep." Akira's planning was interrupted by a deep masculine voice.

'… _Goddamn it.'_

Cursing she silently noted that the voice echoed in space and seemed to radiate power before sitting up and opening her eyes. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the source of the bright light.

The girl blinked, then blinked again, her eyes widening ever so slightly and mouth forming a small "o" as she stared with surprise and no small amount of awe evident in her gaze. There, right in front of her, in a star filled black space, floated a dragon of humongous proportions made entirely out of slowly burning crimson flames. Its head had to two horns, sitting just above a pair of flame like eyes. Flaming frills danced at each side of its head. The young woman nervously noted the razor sharp fangs in the being's mouth, not really wanting to get intimately acquainted with them. It's long serpentine body curving to make it appear standing on two clawed back legs. Two wicked looking hands gleaming in the light produced by a pair of wings each as big as its body is long. Something behind the dragon flickered drawing her attention. Her eyes slightly widened recognizing the familiar grinning tail.

 _'Well, damn.'_ not really knowing what else to do, Akira finally let her eyes meet two brightly blazing yellow orbs, that haven't moved even once since she has awoken. Sucking in a breath, face blank of any emotion, she finally spoke out loud.

"Crimson dragon."

It wasn't a question. She knew exactly what and who the being in front of her was. What she couldn't understand was HOW. Last time she checked fictional ultimate power creatures were not supposed to be… well, real.

The dragon in question cocked its head to the side studying the teens expression.

"I see that you are confused." it spoke without moving its jaw. It was like the voice came from all around her creeping her out a bit. Nevertheless, Akira nodded.

"How? How are you real?"

The dragons one eyebrow rose at the question.

"Not where or why but how?"

Akira shot it a deadpan.

"Those are obvious. One, we're obviously not on Earth anymore, I'm guessing this is a sub-dimension of your creation seeing as the vortex I was sucked into was some sort of portal, I can breathe despite being in what looks like space and I have a sense of touch, proving this is not a dream. Two, you obviously want something from or with me, you wouldn't have kidnapped me otherwise." finished with her observation Akira stared the all-powerful dragon right in the eyes as if daring it to prove her wrong. Said dragon remained silent throughout her small rant. Then suddenly it threw back its head and released a roaring laugh. If Akira was offended by the gesture she didn't show it, her face retaining its normal blank mask.

Finally, the dragon calmed down and gazed down at the still sitting human.

"Oh yes, you will do quite nicely."

Akira cocked an eyebrow at that but remained patiently silent, knowing that it will be explained in due time.

"Right you are. This space is a sub-dimension created between the borders of multiple universes. It is also currently being powered by me and the only thing keeping you from being torn apart to pieces." explained the dragon.

While she expected something like this, Akira still couldn't stop the shiver that traveled down her spine upon hearing those words.

"Why I had you… kidnapped, as you so kindly put it, I will explain it later." it continues after a small pause, clearly finding the whole situation amusing. "To answer your previous question as to how am I real, well, why not?"

The Crimson dragon's lips pulled back a little in an imitation of a smirk when it noticed Akiras right eye twitch a little. Deciding show some mercy to the young woman the being started to explain.

"It is because of the laws of your universe."

This caused both of Akira's eyebrows to disappear into the hairline.

"We, who are aware of this, call your universe the Origin. What makes your world so special is the law that allows any story created to become a new realm that at some point of its existence follows the story from which it was created. Multiple universes were created this way. My world is one such realm." the burning dragon finished its explanation and looked at the silent human, waiting for her reaction.

Akira silently stood up upright to float in space. At first nothing happened, then she raised her hand and with a loud slap her palm connected with her face. Dragging down her open palm she looked at the dragon incredulously.

"Are you telling me that all those movies, books and games human kind has created out of sheer boredom and need for entertainment actually became independent parallel universes and worlds with all the stuff involved within the stories such robots, magic and gods, and that we in a way are those world creating gods that so many secretly aspire to be however impossible or worship in so many religions without even realizing it?" she asked robotically, even as her eyes practically screamed 'what the hell?!'.

"Yes." The being chirped cheerfully. Akira's fingers twitched at its tone as she began to wonder if she shouldn't just strangle the overgrown lizard then and there. Damn the consequences, its amusement is too annoying. Her hands now hanging by her sides, she released a heavy sigh and calmed down.

"Great, just… great. And just like that, one of mankind's greatest questions has been answered… by a supposedly fictional magical god from another dimension."

The young woman sighed again and focused on the clearly amused dragon in front of her who had been patiently floating and observing her as her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"I'm assuming you are telling me all this because of the reason why you brought me here in the first place." she said seriously.

Any amusement that was present in the dragon's eyes was gone without a trace as a serious expression overtook its features.

"Yes, you are right again, young one. You see, I am in need of help." the magical being admitted seriously before continuing seeing that the human was listening "As you know the one known as Rex Godwin seeks to control my power to remake the world in his image. I must say, I do not appreciate this nor can I allow it happen to transpire."

Akira nodded understanding the god's feelings, no one likes to be controlled.

"And while the Signers can and will prevent it from happening, there are some events and happenings that could have been prevented."

"Bruno's death." Akira mumbled quietly looking at one of the stars in the space while the dragon nodded.

"Yes, that and many more. Thus I wish for the forgotten one to return and fulfil its duty." that got Akira's attention.

"Forgotten one?" she waited the dragon to explain but all it did was tilt its massive head to look somewhere behind the young woman. She was about to ask the deity to elaborate when a hissing roar sounded from somewhere behind her and she was hit by a strong gust of wind making her close her eyes and cover her face with her arms as the sound of flapping wings reached her ears.

When the wind settled down, Akira slowly opened her eyes, lowered her arms and was about to ask what was going on but froze when she felt a hot breath ruffle her hair followed by a snake like hiss. Cautiously she peaked over her shoulder and stared in surprise.

Behind her floated a big, although nowhere near as big as the glowing lizard, dragon she's never see before. It was black as the night and looked vaguely humanoid standing on two long legs, each ending with three vicious looking clawed fingers and a talon on the back of its feet. Two black circles with dark blue outline spun lazily on each of its lower leg. The dragon's knees were covered in sharp dark metal armor, its points shooting out in four directions to resemble a four pointed star glyph, only opening at the center to show dark blue jewels. Similar precious stones where positioned all over its body: one at the center of its chest in an opening in its protective covering, taking up no small amount of space, digging deeply into its skin, one on each of its elbows where more armor was positioned in similar fashion to its knees and a few dozen going down from both sides of its long neck down to the tip of the tail where a very sharp knife like attachment hung. Its torso was bare of any armor but instead was adorned by cobalt and white veins that went up until they were hidden behind a jagged chest armor piece. The dragon's shoulders where covered in more armor with sharp tips that opened and revealed more veins that ran down to its elbows. Down on its forearm, just like on its lower leg, span two more circles. The creature's hands were three fingered, each finger covered up in segmented plate that formed sharp claws. Behind it, spread out like a mantle, were two black wings, each about the length of the dragon's body, with a similar vein pattern all over the inside of the wings and small dark blue particles slowly falling down from them like snow. Finally, the dark dragon's head was adorned by four curved horns: two of them going down the length of its face on each side and the other two standing from the back of its head and curving slightly down its neck. The shape of its head was pointed and long, resembling a snake and ending with a sharp chin and a raised snout, while its lower jaw was covered in dark blue and white veins.

Finished with her observation, Akira gathered up enough courage, turned around to face the new arrival fully and looked straight into its dark blue snake slit eyes. They held each other's gazes, one filled with caution, the other – wariness, not willing to back down. Seconds ticked by but still both continued the silent challenge to see who would lose. The dragon's eyes narrowed as it unclenched its jaw to reveal a mouth filled with razor sharp fangs and it released another hiss. Akira, upon hearing this tensed, ready to bolt for cover the second the creature made a sudden move. Before anything could happen, they were both interrupted by a powerful voice.

"Night Void, enough."

The now identified Night Void twitched and finally broke away from the staring contest to look at the Crimson dragon. It stared for a bit before looking away and huffing, its shoulders relaxing as it crossed its arms against its chest, silently admitting defeat. It distinctly reminded Akira of a scolded child. As if sensing her thoughts, the dragon sent a glare in her direction to which she responded with a small smug smirk, causing the glare to sharpen. The deity huffed and decided to just get on with it.

"Night Void, you know why I called you here." stated the burning dragon.

The smaller dragon was silent for a moment, its eyes briefly flickered in the teens direction, who by now has moved to stand to the side so she could see both of the magical beings, before locking gazes with the red one.

"You want the shadow to return." hearing the voice Akira blinked a little in surprise, while the dragons voice, like the deities, too came from all directions, it sounded younger and distinctly feminine… not to mention displeased. She shook her head and focused on what was just said.

' _Shadow?'_

The girl decided to wait and voice her question later as she focused back on the conversation.

"Indeed and you know what that means."

The dark dragons frowned and shifted uncomfortably in place.

"I'll have to go too and face THEM." the female dragon sounded very uncomfortable and even a bit angry.

"You would have had to eventually." came her answer from the Crimson dragon.

Night Void continued to stare but looked away after a few seconds so that Akira couldn't see a sad expression that appeared on the dragons face.

"…They won't accept me, like always." the dark dragon said in a quiet voice the same sentence it has said hundreds of times.

"HE always accepted you."

Hearing this the smaller dragon flinched but didn't say anything, only gripped her arms harder, her armored fingers digging deeply into her skin.

The Crimson dragon observed the dark dragon before signing and shaking its massive head.

"The final decision is still yours."

Night Void stared into the endless space reflected in the sub-dimension, her eyes distant and unseeing. Finally, the dragon clenched her eyes tight making a hard decision before opening them again now gleaming with determination. She released a tired breath, uncrossing her arms and looking back at the patiently waiting burning dragon.

"Knowing you, you wouldn't have called me back without a good reason, so the problem must be serious enough, that it would require the shadows presence." the dragon raised her hand to rub the side of her horned head in a very human like display of frustration as she continues after a pause. "…fine, I'll do it."

The moment those words left her mouth the Crimson dragons body started glowing more brightly as its expression shifted into an imitation of a smile, happy at the return of its forgotten dragon, while Night Void released a low hiss, annoyed at its reaction.

During the whole ordeal Akira has remained silent, sensing that that part of the conversation was supposed to be private. Nevertheless, she heard it whole and while she understood some of it, much of it remained a mystery to her and caused dozens of questions to rise. But among them all, one stood out the most.

 _'What is this shadow they keep talking about?'_

She had theories upon theories based on the implications and her knowledge of the 5D's universe, but without anything solid she couldn't work. She was brought of her reverie by the sound of a deep male voice.

"I believe you already noticed that we have company today." said the Crimson dragon as it drew it attention back at the only human in this space.

Night Voids eyes turned to study Akira and she unconsciously tensed, feeling those dark blue slits register every flaw and imperfection. Apparently, the dark dragon wasn't so happy. Turning to the other she spoke her thoughts.

"So, this is the human you chose? I don't see anything special about it."

 _'Rude.'_ Akira thought. She's not an IT, she's a SHE. The burning being if anything, looked amused, smiling like it knew something the other didn't. The dark dragon noticed the evil eye Akira was giving her and scowled.

"What are you glaring at, human?"

"It."

Night Void drew back a bit in confusion, before realising the implication and glaring.

"I'm female." she hissed out annoyed.

The girl tilted her head innocently to the side in curiosity, mischief shining in her eyes.

"Are you?"

"Yes."

"Well, it's hard to believe," Akira started, a small smirk spread over her lips, as she raised her hands and cupped both sides of her bust "when you don't have the important assets~" she finished in a singsong.

A dark blue blush spread over both sides of the dragons face as she started sputtering in outrage and embarrassment.

"I-it's the a-ar-armour!"

"Whatever you say, bustless~"

The Crimson dragon watched the bypass and smiled.

 _'Definitely worth one another.'_

It cleared its throat to get their attention. Night Void was blue in the face and ready to pounce, while Akira was wiggling around taunting the other further, but both stopped and looked at the source of the noise.

The crimson deity directed its gaze to look directly into the teens eyes before speaking.

"I said I would explain to you why I had you taken."

Akira straitened up, her face morphing into an emotionless mask, knowing that the coming would be serious, and listened.

"You no doubt know about my worlds history and about the Signers, with you coming from the Origin."

To the side Night Voids eyes widened as she whipped her head around to look at the human girl in astonishment.

"What you don't know is that there is another Signer, one that is called upon only when absolutely necessary," the great dragon pause and looked at Akira seriously "the Shadow, the one that protects from the darkness, guardian of the Crimson Dragons shadow." hHere the dragon held up its head high and proudly finished "MY shadow."

Akira blinked a bit surprised at the new piece of information as she stared at the dragon before frowning and looking puzzled.

"So, you want me to find them or something? Because I have no ide-"

"I want you to be it."

A long silence followed. The emotionless mask Akira has been wearing all this time shattered into pieces, her eyes slowly widened until they were the size of dinner plates as her jaw hung open, her mind not really registering anything anymore. Finally, she forced her jaw to work again.

"W-what… but… t-that's not… impos-" she was cut off by an irate hiss from the side.

"Oh for the love of, he wants you to be the Signer of the shadow, what's so hard to believe?" came Night Voids snide voice. The dark dragon crossed her arms and leaned back observing the human.

Hearing her speak the girl, tried to calm down and after several deep breaths she opened her eyes she didn't notice were closed and looked at the deity who had been silently waiting for her to compose herself, hundreds of questions reflecting in her eyes.

"Yes but… WHY? I'm sure there are lot of better alternatives. Besides, the series have a happy ending, another Signer is not needed." she tried to reason.

"Correction, the version you know is the one that with a… 'happy ending'." the bigger dragon corrected her causally. A frown formed on the youths face.

"Explain."

Signing the dragon looked into the endless void they were in with a faraway look.

"As you know, there are endless possibilities. While the main events do come to pass they might not end as you know them. Thus I need the Shadow."

Akiras eyes narrowed at that.

"You need insurance." she stated bluntly and waited for the dragon to respond. She didn't wait long.

"Yes. As I said, I do not appreciate it when someone is trying to control me, alas us gods are not allowed to interfere directly with the lives of the mortals, not even if they are far above normal humans and such. We are allowed to give aid or leave cryptic messages, but outright elimination of threat is only allowed in special circumstances. Last time I was free to do so was 5000 years ago."

This time it turned and looked directly Akira in the eyes while pulling its lips back into a small smile.

"That's why I need an agent, one that knows what's going to happen, what needs to be changed and is far more subtle than a dragon the size of a small city."

Akira cracked a small smile at the last remark but it quickly disappeared as she closed her eyes and released a tired sigh. Crossing her arms, she opened her eyes again.

"Then, I guess my question is simple: why me?"

The dragon cocked its head gesturing to elaborate to which the lone human complied.

"You could have chosen anyone from my world, yet you choose me, a 17-year-old high-schooler with a thing for anime, manga, technology and card games. Even then there are many more who should qualify way more than me. Besides, I'm not exactly the hero sort." she finished and gave the dragon a pointed look.

Said dragon has kept silent. Then it stretched its wings and leaned down so it's flaming face was just a couple metres sways from Akira, who silently noted that the flames produced no heat.

"And yet you would still do what you think is right." This made Akira twitch but the dragon continued not letting her protest "I know a lot more about you than you think I do, Hoshikoka Akira. I know for a fact that you have a lot of talents and skills and are not afraid to put them to use if a need arises. I know that you are intelligent and a very capable strategist. I know that despite the emotionless and cold front you put up you are in truth a very kind and caring person." the dragon's eyes twinkled "I also know that you have a gift for mischief and an ability to cause chaos and mayhem wherever you go. I do believe those bullies at your school are still afraid of bright flashes and oranges."

Akira had the decency to look a bit sheepish as she scratched her head. She knew she should have laid off on the oranges, but there was a sale that day and it's always better when you have more to spare. Although, the bullies probably didn't really appreciate being pelted with oranges by berserk baseball pitching machines while their photos were being taken by hidden photography club members they bullied earlier that week only to appear the next day all over the schools notice boards. After the incident they were never the same.

Suddenly the deities features darkened "And… I know that you are very lonely after what happened 2 years ago."

Akira tensed almost instantly. And just like that the light-hearted mood vaporised. She felt Night Voids curios eyes on her but she ignored her. It wasn't something she wanted to talk nor think about. It has been hard, even after 2 years she still couldn't properly move on and probably never will. She dragged a palm over her face, trying to forget the dragons last sentence.

"Wouldn't at least someone older be better?"

"You know that the current generation of Signers is quite young, it would be better if someone their age was to help them."

Well, she couldn't argue with that. The dragon stood up straight, its flaming wings stretching out behind it, and looked down with a serious expression.

"Let me put it like this way, I have seen your life, judged it and found you fitting for this duty. Hoshikoka Akira of the Origin, will you accept the position of the Shadow? Will you protect the other Signers just like the previous Shadows have before you? Will you help me insure this story has a true happy ending?"

The words were spoken with power and unyielding will, just like what you would expect from a god. But none of this mattered to Akira now. She was still unsure. Sure, the prospect of travelling into the world of an anime she liked endeared her but… she would be going into an unknown land, not knowing anyone and alone, more alone than she already was. The girl frowned, still, she couldn't deny that she craved, what many of her world did. She wanted adventure. Oh she knew how dangerous the adventures in the 5D's universe really are, but she would be lying if she said she wasn't interested. The simple idea that she could escape the normal reality she has deemed "boring" years ago and to go do something more, be something more than just a simple high school student, was almost too much. Almost. But not enough.

The teen raised her head and looked around. They were still floating in the endless space within the sub-dimension, stars dotting its surface. She could see her bag, containing her laptop, books, other essentials and a deck of duel monster cards she always carried around, floating in a distance away from her. To her right stood the black armoured dragon known as Night Void, silently looking at her with wary slits, but she could see that much of the previous animosity had been replaced by curiosity and, dare she say, a bit of respect. Finally, her gaze landed on the Crimson dragon who hasn't moved and inch since it finished its questions and she stared deeply into its eyes. And there she saw what she was looking for. A plea for help.

And so she made her decision.

Akira stood up straighter, shoulder broad, head held high as she spoke her answer, at the moment feeling the need to speak formally.

"Very well, I shall help you and become the Shadow."

The Crimson dragon's expression brightened as a bright red glow outlined its body. Instantly Akira began feeling a searing pain in her right forearm. Gritting her teeth and hissing she used her left hand to pull back her jackets sleeve and watched as a mark started forming. First, an outline of a dragon's head appeared, quickly followed by a long neck and two clawed hands. When it reached the torso, a pair of wings sprang out in two different directions as they hugged the arm almost touching each other on the inner forearm. Its torso finished, two short legs formed at the bottom and, finally, a long waving tail formed, its weird tip ending just below Akiras elbow. Process completely it stopped glowing, allowing Akira to see the new addition to her body.

 _'Looks like somebody made a satellite shot of the Crimson Dragon flying in the sky.'_

The girl noticed that it also looked like the dragon's silhouette, but didn't comment on it. Instead she turned and shot an annoyed look at the now clearly happy dragon, if its bright glowing is anything to go by.

"You could've at least given me time to prepare before doing that. It hurt." she rubbed her now marked hand to get rid of phantom pain. She heard a snort near her.

"Don't whine, human, or is a small burn all it takes to make you cry?" Night Void snipped mockingly, her head waving back and forth tauntingly.

Akira just shot her a calm look.

"It's called _**complaining**_ , get your facts straight or should I fetch you a dictionary?"

"What for? Can't beat me in game of words?"

"No, just need to check if your picture is placed near the definition of 'tsundere'."

"Why you-"

Further arguments were interrupted by an amused voice.

"You do realise you two are now going to have to work together."

The dragon and human both stopped, glanced at each other and in unison both dropped their faces into their palm, one releasing a hiss, the other - groan in annoyance. The dark dragon was first to recover. She turned and faced the human girl fully.

"Like it or not, we're bound now and will have to work in this together. Just don't get any ideas that I'm fond of you, human, because I'm not."

Akira was a bit surprised that the dragon could actually act mature but quickly hid it. Instead she nodded and met the dragons blue gaze.

"Good, because I want to earn your respect, not be given it for nothing."

Night Void was taken aback by the declaration for a split second, not expecting what she saw as an arrogant creature to say those words. She then noticed that the human had extended its arm towards her and was standing there, waiting, as if expecting something from her.

"What… are you doing?"

Akira tilted her head to the side briefly confused.

"It's called a handshake, humans do it when they greet or meet each other. Also when they are grateful for something or agree to a deal." she explained patiently.

Night Voids eyes widened slightly at the implication. Then, slowly, she extended her arm and let it rest before the new Shadow, her hand so big it was almost the size of Akiras body. Nevertheless, Akira grasped one of the dragons clawed fingers and shook it. Looking up again, she nodded at the dragon and bowed slightly.

"Hoshikoka Akira, Bearer of the Shadow, please take care of me."

The dragon was stunned for a second and stared at the human before answering the same way.

"Night Void Dragon, the Vengeful Chaos… likewise."

Akira offered the dragon a small smile before letting go of her finger and turning to the other dragon. Said dragon was smiling, knowing that everything would work out eventually between the new partners.

"So, how are we going to do this?" asked Akira, curious of what the deity was planning.

"I will send you into Neo Domino city, 6 months before the 'main' events, so you would have the time to establish yourself in the new world."

"What about living arrangements, money and documentation?"

The Crimson dragon shook its head.

"That is something you will have to take care of on your own, but I'm sure you already have some ideas how to solve this."

Akira gave a curl nod, confirming the dragon's words.

"Your purpose is to guide the other Signers, make their work easier and see to it what everything ends well." Then it gained a mischievous gleam in its eyes. "Oh and make sure to cause as much headaches as possible to that infuriating human."

The Shadow raised an eyebrow at that. The protector of light could hold grudges and actually had a mean streak. Who knew? She shook her head to get rid of the thoughts.

"What about Yliaster? They'll know about me the second I appear in that universe."

The Crimson Dragon's eyes lit up in an unholy light. Night Void instantly tensed and started fidgeting in place, recognising the look and its meaning: whoever is on the receiving end of it, is going to be in a lot of pain in the near future. Luckily for the occupants of the sub-dimension, none of them were the target.

"No they won't. After all, they come from the future where there was no Shadow."

Akira stayed silent. Then, slowly, a shit-eating grin spread out on her face, glowing with nothing but malice and pure evil. She released a very uncharacteristic cackle as she realised the implications of this.

 _'This is going to be_ _ **glorious**_ _. The potential this situation has… oh sweet chaos~'_

She calmed down and decided to plot plans of revenge later. She still needed to ask the one question that's been bugging her for months now.

"How come the Dark Signers have all those powers while the Signers don't?"

If anything the flaming dragon looked very amused.

"Who said they don't?"

Akira blinked, blinked again, then slapped her palm on her face.

"They never figured it out, have they?"

"Nope." it popped the 'p' in the end.

"Marvellous."

"See? That's why the Shadow is so needed, just started and you're already asking the right questions."

Akira rubbed her forehead to ward away the headache she knew was coming. She signed and looked at the frustrating lizard.

"You're not going to help me figure what those powers are, are you?"

"Now where the fun would be in that?"

So it has decided to play the 'I'm an ageless god and I need my entertainment' card, huh? Akira looked to her new partner for help. Night Void just shrugged.

"He gets even worse when he's bored."

The girl groaned quietly and turned back to the overgrown lizard.

"Can we… please, get on with this? It's been a long day and I don't think I can handle any more bombshells dropping on my head."

The Crimson dragon nodded and brought its hands together. A bright light started shining in between its claws as a familiar spinning human sized red vortex came into existence. The deity releases the newly formed portal and floated back letting it levitate in place. Akira spared the new portal an aggravated glance before kicking off slightly to float up to her forgotten bag and grabbed it. Floating up to the new vortex she paused a bit and looked up the big dragon.

"Is there anything else I should know?"

The deity tiled its horned head to the side as if contemplating something before nodding.

"As a matter of fact yes, your presence might affect some events. For example, while the 'main' events are still be mostly unaffected, some 'side' events might play out differently from how you know them or cease to exist all together, while new ones might appear at any time. So do be careful, you'll never know when trouble comes your way."

Akira nodded in thanks for the warning and turned to Night Void. Crimson Dragon sensing a silent question decided to answer.

"Night Void will follow shortly after you, do not worry, you'll find her with you when you cross over."

The girl stared at the bright being before turning to the dark dragon wanting her confirmation. Night Void frowned but reluctantly nodded her head. Seeing this Akira turned to the portal once again.

"Good luck and be careful, young Shadow, may the stars shine the right path for you for dark times are approaching."

She heard the Crimson dragon speak and paused a step from the portal. The Shadow threw a glance over her shoulder.

"Just for the record, I'm calling you Lizard from now on."

Then she looked over Night Void.

"See ya."

And with that Akira stepped through the portal, disappearing into a new world where adventure awaited her.

Left behind the Crimson dragon blinked, then shook its head and released a chuckle.

"Isn't she an interesting one, Night Void?"

The other dragon scoffed and asked.

"What did you want to tell me?"

The deity smiled slightly.

"You know me too well." It said before becoming serious. "Night Void, I want you to look out for that child."

Night Void turned her head, surprised at the request. Seeing this the Crimson dragon sighed and looked at the still spinning portal.

"That child has been through a lot: hurt, rejection… loss. She is ridden with guilt and self-loathing. And while she might hide it well, her need to atone still shines through in the most dangerous way." The dragon turned and looked the smaller one right in eyes. "She lacks self-worth and is prone to self-sacrificing. A lot like you."

Night Voids eyes widened and darkened, her expression becoming unreadable, as she too looked at where the young Shadow had been standing minutes ago. Finally, she released a hissing breath and turned to the other.

"I'll look after her."

The Crimson Dragon smiled, grateful that it's request has been accepted, before its smile turned mischievous as it added.

"And I expect grandchildren by the of this adventure."

Night Void choked on air, a very large dark blue blush spreading all over her face as she started sputtering violently.

"F-F-FA-FATHER!"

The Crimson Dragon just laughed at her reaction. Not knowing what to do and trying to escape further humiliation, Night Void jumped up, glowed dark blue brightly, shrank down into a small dark blue ball the size of a golf ball and took off into the portal, passing through without any problems.

Left alone the being watched as the vortex flickered away. It closed its eyes and smiled.

"Good luck you two, I'll be watching."

And with a red flash the being disappeared to return to its realm among the endless mirrors, shattering the sub-dimension into pieces and leaving behind no evidence of the conversation that has transpired.

* * *

Over the technologically advanced city of Neo Domino unnoticed by its inhabitants a small shock-wave passed through the cities night sky, its ripples alerting six certain dragons.

Deep in the bowels of the Netherworld, the dark immortals narrowed their eyes in suspicion but soon dismissed it, not believing that THAT dragon would ever agree to return. Within an endless white dimension, a masked humanoid looked up feeling something shift within the fabrics of the universe.

In dark rooms 6 cards lit up in different colours, their owners none the wiser.

The red one released an angry growl, not liking the meaning of this. The blue card keened sadly. The burgundy spirit radiated with shame, not proud of what it had done. The black light shifted anxiously, while the yellow one dimmed from guilt. Finally, the last one, shined silvery with hope, elated at the chance to see and once again fight alongside its long lost friend. Nevertheless, they all shined brightly.

For they knew that their forgotten comrade has returned. Night Void Dragon, the ever-vengeful bringer of chaos and with her - Signer of the Shadow, the dark protector, have come and that can only mean one thing: a new battle is approaching and it will be like nothing the world has ever seen.

* * *

 **A.N.**

 **So... I was bored and decided I needed to play through Tag Force series. Then an idea formed 'why not mess with the 5D's universe' and then... THIS came to be. Honestly, I don't know where this is going but at least I'll try to write it.**

 **I got bored of Tokyo Ghoul and the amount of work at the time prevented me from writing that story (work at the time: program a game, design said games environment, make a gif of a 3D model, write 2 essays, do a programming/math homework, prepare for exams, stay fabulous) Yeaaaah... it was basically hell, I even got a fine for riding without a ticket in bus, because I fell asleep in said bus before I could even mark it. That's what living on Red Bull, with less than 2 hours of sleep a day for 3 week, does to people. Don't try it at home, kids.**

 **Anyway, if you are wondering about the dragon, _Night Void Dragon_ to be exact, yeah, you can stop searching the net for the Yu-Gi-Oh card. It's OC. As in, I made it up at the top of the hat. And what a headache that was. I'll say this, if you're having a hard time picturing it, I used _Gandora X_ (an existing Yu-Gi-Oh card) and _Star-vader, Nebula Lord Dragon_ (Cardfight! Vanguard) as reference, otherwise, let your imagination fill in the blanks. Her effect? Well, while I've already came up with an idea, I'm always open for suggestions. Do keep in mind that she is a 'vengeful' dragon and, as stated in the chapter, shares Akiras 'sacrificial' way of thinking.**

 **As for romance. I don't know. If there's gonna be any, it's gonna slow, the 'and suddenly it happened' type of things annoy me. Although, I've already thought of some humorous situations involving Akira that would make even Yusei blush like there's no tomorrow. Neheheheh~ She wouldn't be a walking mayhem otherwise.**

 **There, I've said my piece, read and review if you dare. I'm going to get my long deserved cup of tea. Ta~**


	2. GAME START!

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything (only my beloven phone Ivano, Boris the laptop and a secret stash of junk-food in my wardrobe). Everything ever used in the story belong to their rightful owners, except the OCs and my natural charm. Toodles. Need to write 10 more words till its 11K. HA!**

* * *

It was a quiet night in the city of Neo Domino. People slept peacefully in their homes undisturbed. Within a dark alley a black cat was digging through garbage. Suddenly it jerked up and hissed as a strong wind from a helicopter, flying overhead, blew it off balance.

The chopper turned as its light focused on two small fast moving object driving on the road down below it.

"This is K7-01, currently pursuing Yamada Kyo, a suspect in a string of robberies committed by a duel gang known as 'The Infernal', requesting for back-up. Currently, Officer Abukara is engaging the suspect in a turbo duel, however it doesn't seem like it will be enough. We are heading in the direction of the docks, current position X451-Y790. I repeat, this is K7-01, requesting for back up."

The pilot finished and put away the radio. He released a tired sigh and leaned back into his seat. Just when he thought that he could finally enjoy a quiet night this cropped up. The pilot turned to the side and looked into a monitor showing the duels progression.

 **Abukara 500LP 8SC/ Yamada Kyo 2400LP 12SC**

The officer had a Gate Defender (LV4 ATK/0 DEF/2000) set in a face-up defense position and no face-down cards, while the suspect had Gladiator Beast Gaiodiaz (LV7 ATK/2600 DEF/1500), Gladiator Beast Gyzarus (LV6 ATK/2400 DEF/1500) and a face-down spell/trap card on his side of the field. Things did not look good for them.

The pilot was about to make another radio call when suddenly his co-pilot interrupted him.

"Sir, we have an unknown incoming!"

The pilot jerked in surprise.

"Do we have a visual?"

"Just a moment, sir."

The image that came up on the monitor made the pilot turn pale as a ghost.

"O-oh no…"

* * *

Kyo was having the time of his life. Earlier this week he and his gang had broken into a few d-wheel shops. Needless to say, they made quite a fortune by taking them apart and selling the parts in the black market. Of course, they left the best once for themselves. Now they had the money, the fame and the rides.

Earlier today, he was riding his new d-wheel to the gang's hideout when suddenly he was ambushed by the Sector Security. He was sure that he was done for, when, imagine his luck, it turned out that the Officer was an amateur straight out of training.

Now here he was, just one turn away from victory and freedom. He shot a smirk at the nervous officer behind him.

"Oi, oi! Hurry up and end your turn! There's nothing you can do anyway, lap dog! Hahaha!"

The security flinched.

"I-I end my turn."

The criminal laughed loudly and was about to draw his card to finish the duel when an unexpected beeping interrupted him. Confused Kyo looked at his d-wheels monitor. The screen was fine for a moment, then multiple red warning 'ERROR' messages started popping out of nowhere. Now a little scared the criminal looked up at the road to see that the Speed World field spell too was being sieged by the red warnings, flashing in and out of existence. Then, suddenly as they came, all ERROR messages disappeared like they were never there. Both the riders were left bewildered.

" _Duel Mode, on-Auto Pilot, standby."_

"WHAT?!" Kyo practically screamed as he watched a 3rd field appear on his monitor.

 **? 1450LP SC10**

He looked back at the officer ready to demand an explanation when he paused seeing that he looked as confused as him. Then he heard it, the sound of d-wheel approaching, fast.

Out of the darkness of the night drow out another machine. The criminal watched as it rode past the officer but stopped right behind him. He observed the new arrival. The d-wheel, compared to most, was small, build so that the rider would be laying down on the machines body to ride it. It was colored obsidian black, toxic green glowing lines running along its body. The choppy wing like structures in its front hanging parallel to the wheel made an intimidating sight, especially since the only source of light from the machine were the glowing lights. He could see hand controllers attached from the side rising up to the level of the rider. A dark tinted one-way glass in the front prevented Kyo from seeing if it was a hybrid or not but he could see duel disk extensions sticking out from behind the glass. All in all, it was a beautiful if a little scary d-wheel built for speed and maneuverability.

The criminal focused his gaze at the machines rider and paled at the sight. A long black leather coat with ragged ends billowed in the wind behind the d-wheel, its coattails whipping around angrily. Black pants and steel boots adorned their legs, while long sleeves and leather gloves hid the rider's arms. What disturbed the criminal the most was the face. He couldn't see it. The riders face was hidden under the coats hood and what you could see was obscured by a full face helmet, its glass in the form of a green orb, which glowed in the middle with similar intensity to the lines on the d-wheel. They looked more like a ghost than human.

Shaking his head to get rid of the thoughts, the criminal scowled angrily at the apparition.

"Hey! What's the big idea, freak show?! Can't you see we're in the middle of a duel?! Get the fucking hell out of the way!"

The dark rider stayed silent. Then they looked up at Kyo.

"You will lose in one turn." Was all they said. Kyo flinched at the sound the apparitions voice made. It was cold and machine like, obviously the rider was using a voice modulator, but coupled with the looks it sounded beyond scary.

Then the rider's words registered in his mind.

"What the hell did you just say?!" Kyo screamed in anger.

But he was ignored by the dark rider.

"Draw."

The rider drew 6 cards and paused.

"I pay 2 speed counters to play Speed Spell - Pot of Greed from my hand and draw two more cards."

Kyo watched as the apparition drew 2 more cards and after looking briefly added them to their hand. Their d-wheel now riding next to the terrified officer.

"So what?! I doubt anything you'll whip out can do anything against my Gladiator Beasts!" at that he started laughing loudly, believing there's nothing the other could do.

"Since I have more than 3 SC I can activate activate Speed Spell – Dark Fusion!"

"No way!" the criminal exclaimed surprised.

"From my hand I send Evil HERO Malicious Edge (LV7 ATK/2600 DEF/1800) and Granmarg the Rock Monarch (LV6 ATK/2400 DEF/1000) to the graveyard to Fusion summon Evil HERO Dark Gaia!" the rider exclaimed a little louder.

A dark vortex appeared in front of the rider as apparitions of 2 discarded monsters were sucked into it. Kyo watched in apprehension as a clawed hand ripped its way out of the center of the portal, quickly followed by another. They grasped the edges tightly and with a powerful jerk pulled it apart. A huge winged monstrosity jumped out of the rift and spread its wings releasing a mighty roar.

 **Evil HERO Dark Gaia (LV8 ATK/? DEF/0)**

Kyo blinked and then started laughing loudly, his previous fear forgotten.

"Is that al-"

"I activate Dark Gaias effect, it gains attack equal to the combined attack points of monsters used to Fusion summon it."

 **Evil HERO Dark Gaia (LV8 ATK/5000 DEF/0)**

The criminal quickly shut up and paled at the sight of the monsters ATK. Then he shook his head and composed himself, smiling smugly, there was still a chance. He cast a glance at his face-down card. _'That freak show won't know what hit him.'_ Kyo thought confidently and focused back on his opponent.

"Now, Dark Gaia, attack Gladiator Beast Gyzarus and destroy all of his Life Points!"

The monster sprang up, eager to obey its masters command. The criminal grinned.

' _Gotcha~'_

"I activate trap card, Dimensional Prison, the moment a monster declares an attack its removed from play! Say goodbye to your litt-" suddenly his trap card sizzled and closed back up. His mouth hanging open, he looked at his opponent, not understanding what's going on.

"The turn Dark Fusion is used, the summoned monster is unaffected by the opponent's spell, trap and card effects." The dark rider explained patiently.

Kyo could do nothing but watch horrified as the evil monster closed in on his Gladiator Beast. His monster released a terrified screech as Dark Gaias clawed hand grabbed it by its neck and viciously tore its head from its body.

 **Yamada Kyo 0LP 0SC**

Kyos d-wheel released streams of steam as it came to a sudden stop, its ridder almost falling off in the process, while the dark rider and the officer rode past.

In his seat Officer Abukara sat terrified. He watched as the other duelist turned to look at him. After a long pause the apparition spoke up.

"Surrender."

No matter how terrified the officer was he still shook his head no.

"I see." The other rider spoke. "Then I pay 2 SC and use Speed Spell – De-Fusion on Evil HERO Dark Gaia and summon back Evil HERO Malicious Edge as well as Granmarg the Rock Monarch."

The security watched horrified as the monstrosity split into 2 monsters. The rider slowing down a little after the loss of SC.

"Granmarg, attack his Gate Defender."

The gold monster moved to attack with its colossal fist. The attack connected but still the officers monster remained.

"I-I-I a-activate G-Ga-Gate D-Defenders effect, o-once p-p-p-per turn i-if a-a monster a-a-attacks it's a-a-attack is n-negated!" Abukara stammered out, relieved for his monster's effect.

"Then I used Malicious Edge to attack your monster." was the dark riders reply.

The clawed monster leaped into action, its sharp nails cleaving through the other monster like butter.

Even if his monster was destroyed, he still survived the turn.

"I activate Evil HERO Malicious Edge's effect," the officers head snapped up in surprise "If Evil HERO Malicious Edge battles a defense position monster, it inflicts piercing damage to the monster's owner."

Abukara yelped as a sharped from his destroyed monster hit him, bringing his Life Points to 0.

 **Abukara 0LP 0SC**

Steam exploded in his face as he was forced to came to a stop.

 **Winner:** **? 1450LP SC6**

The winner of the duel pressed the peddle harder and accelerated, their monsters disappearing as Speed World south down. Driving down the road at incredible speed, the rider released a sigh but quickly tensed at the sound of a chopper. Looking back up the duellist saw that the security chopper was trying to follow them.

They didn't panic. All they did was reach out to the side of their d-wheel and press a button there.

* * *

Inside the helicopter the pilot was sweating bullets. He recognised the black d-wheels owner, in security rare few couldn't these days.

With trembling hands he reached out for the radio.

"T-This is K7-01, requesting i-immediate back-up! I repeat, r-requesting immediate back-up! The R-R-Reaper has been confirmed on site! The R-Reaper has a-appeared and is c-currently fleeing after a duel! We a-are currently tracking the signal! Please hurry!"

Releasing a shaky breath, the pilot dropped the radio and gripped the controls harshly in effort to stop his hands from shaking.

"Sir?"

He jerked harshly, momentarily forgetting that he was not alone. Breathing a calming sigh, the pilot nodded to his co-pilot to continue.

"What's a reaper?"

Ah, he forgot that this guy was a rookie, no wonder he doesn't know. Nevertheless, he answered.

"The question is not what," he extended his arm to point at a monitor showing a fast-moving fleeing black figure "but who."

The rookie looked confused.

"Sir, if that's a criminal why hasn't he been apprehended yet?"

The pilot released a sarcastic snort.

"Easier said than done." bitterness clear in his voice. The younger officer shot him a bewildered look. "Look, rookie, THAT" he scowled angrily at the monitor "is a ghost, a phantom, a demon, call him whatever you want. We know nothing about him: not his face, not his age, not his voice, heck, not even his true gender." the officer practically exploded. Shifting in place he looked at his younger and calmed down when he saw him trying press himself into his seat nervously. The pilot raised his hand and rubbed his forehead.

"All we know is that he appeared a few months ago, dressed all black, ridding a black d-wheel with green highlights and started challenging all the criminals on the roads."

"So, he's a vigilante? Taking care of all the bad guys for us? Isn't he a hero then?"

"No!" the co-pilot was interrupted harshly "No… that's no hero," the pilot whispered, terror and hate clear in his voice "that's a MONSTER."

They both lapsed into a moment of silence, one confused, the other angry. Finally, the co-pilot broke the silence.

"Sir, why do you fear him so much?"

The pilot was silent for a moment, then he looked the rookie right in the eyes, his own eyes wide.

"Because of what happened." The pilot shuddered "A little over 2 months ago there was a high speed chase through the city."

 _A d-wheel speedily zoomed by, dodging cars left and right, as 4 sector security bikes chased it. Rain pelted the riders, making it hard to see in the dark._

"The criminal at the time is not important. What's important is that, halfway through the chase the Reaper appeared and ripped his way into a duel."

" _Duel Mode, on-Auto Pilot, standby."_

"The criminal was afraid; he probably has heard of him through rumors. So, he made a proposal to the security officers. He wanted them all to gang up on the Reaper. The officers agreed, tempted by a chance to get a promotion by capturing such a high-profile individual."

" _Collaborating with criminals now? Can you get any lower? Very well, but you will only have one field and your LP will be combined into one."_

"The Reaper set his rules and they all agreed, confident that the 5 of them would be able to overwhelm the lone rider. But…"

" _Trap Card activate, Dimensional Prison!"_

" _I activate Magic Cylinder!"_

" _Trap Negate, Dark Bribe!"_

" _Flip Effect Activate!"_

" _Bottomless Trap Hole, activate!"_

" _Come forth, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!"_

" _I use monster effect!"_

"No matter what they threw at him, he would always counter, destroying monsters, negating card activations, stop attacks, cancel battle phases. Even so, 5 versus 1 was unfair, not even he could escape."

 _They watched with glee as the last 2 monsters on Reapers side of the field exploded into small glass shards, leaving him with only one face-down card that had remained untouched since the start of the duel. The five others were ecstatic. They were doing this, they could win!_

"Or so that would have been the case had it been anyone but the Reaper."

 _"Trap card activate! Abysmal Vengeance!"_

 _"I can only activate this trap when 2 or more monsters I control are destroyed and I have no cards other than this one on the field. By discarding synchro material monsters from my hand I can synchro summon my ace!"_

 _"I tune my Level 7 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness into Level 1 Sinister Sprocket!"_

 _Darkness started gathering above the riders. With growing dread, they struggled to see anything as it started spreading to surround them, the rain hindering their efforts. A flash of light flashed somewhere in that darkness._

 _"Ever-reaching darkness, shroud this world in dusk. Become the guiding shadow in the night!"_

 _"Synchro Summon!"_

 _"Avenge them, N- - -!"_

 _ROOOOAAAAAR!_

"So, he synchro summoned, what good would that do him?" Asked the co-pilot.

The pilot shook his head.

"Everything."

 _The 5 watched as something monstrous moved, hidden by darkness and rain. They knew it was the new monster. Small flashes of blue could be seen here and there, followed by occasional hissing. They felt being watched, like prey. Whatever the new monster was, it was terrifying._

 _"Abysmal Vengeance effect activate; the turn it was activated my monster gains attack equal to the destroyed monsters combined ATK."_

 _ **6900ATK**_

 _The 5 looked confused. Why power up a monster, when it can't even attack?_

 _"Monster effect activate! I change all face-up defence position monsters you control into face-up attack position and thanks to the trap card by discarding one card I can declare a new battle phase where every monster you control must attack my monster, if able to!"_

 _Horror dawned to the riders as they realised the implications of this. They could only watch helplessly as their monsters tried to attack an invisible enemy only to get destroyed themselves, their life points draining till 0 as haunting blue slits and a green visor glowed malevolently in the night._

"Because of the rain and two of the monsters that attacked only having 100ATK the whole thing ended with the officers and the criminal suffering a horrible crash and were hospitalised for a month. Ever since the officers and criminals alike started to fear the Reaper." The older officer finished telling the story. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Sir, if I may, how do you know this story in such detail?"

The pilot responded by pulling up his jackets sleeve. The younger gasped in surprise. The uncovered forearm was married with horrible scars and blemishes. He looked to the other for an explanation. The pilot smiled bitterly.

"I was one of those officers. And do you know what was the last thing I saw back then before blacking out?"

The rookie shook his head no. Just then the monitor that has been following the Reaper went static and blacked out.

"I saw a Grim Reapers disappearing back."

* * *

Darkness and silence, they were the only companions to a dark apartment room. Within nothing moved, you could only see shadows cast by the furniture from the city lights. Nevertheless, it was peaceful… and it did not last long.

A sound of an engine approaching pierced the stillness. Before long the machine stopped and shut down outside the building. A brief silence was once again interrupted by the sound of a garage door opening and closing.

A door opened and in came a black clad figure. It didn't waste any time to take off its shoes or shrug off its coat, choosing to instead deposit itself on a couch with a huff. For a few minutes the figure continued to lay on its stomach, when it suddenly flipped itself over onto its back and lazily reached to switch on the light.

Light flooded the no longer dark room. It was a small living room with a connected kitchen to the side. The kitchen had all the essentials such a fridge, a stove, a cutting table and a sink with cupboards hanging off the walls. A mini-bar with a coffee machine and chairs separated it from the other room. Coming out of the kitchen area and a little back stood two doors. One lead to a garage, the other to a bedroom. Finally, on the wall of the living room hung a widescreen TV with a table, two seats and a couch in front of it. Said couch was currently occupied by a black clad and helmeted infamous turbo duellist only known as the Reaper.

Reaper lazily raised his hands and gripped both sides of his helmet. With a sudden jerk the ridding protection came off and landed on the ground next to the sofa, revealing the mysterious riders face. Black spiky jaw length hair slowly came back to life after being flattened for hours by a helmet, two green bangs resting on from both sides of the face. Half lidded green eyes lazily opened to gaze at the ceiling silently as thin lips parted to release a tired sigh. It was Akira, a dimension hopping 17-year-old high school student, that's been persuaded into helping with a world-saving scheme by a magical dragon god. Not the best résumé but to everyone their own. But now, she was just dead tired.

It has been 6 months since she had been transported into this world. A long 6 months. And boy were they eventful. Akira snorted. Yes, not 1 hour in the new world and she already managed to find trouble.

 _Akira woke up with a pounding head. She tried moving but her sore body protested greatly against it. Huffing she looked around and realised that she was most likely in some alley._

' _At least its free of garbage. Thanks a lot, Lizard.'_

 _She spent the next couple of minutes just sitting there, her back pressed against a wall, swearing at the deity responsible for her state. The girl finally got tired of cursing and started trying to move. After what felt like hours she finally succeeded in standing up, although on wobbly legs._

 _Akira looked around for her bag and released a relieved sigh when she found it leaning against a wall a couple of metres away. She couldn't go anywhere without her precious laptop, much less the cards she carried around. Retrieving her bag, she checked if anything was missing._

' _Yep, all there.'_

 _A slight shine in her case caught her attention. Inserting her hand, she found the source of light and pulled it out. It turned out to be a card. Akira flipped it over and had to repress a small smile that threatened to appear on her face._

' _Well, hello again.'_

 _The card was none other than Night Void Dragon, her new unwilling partner. Well, at least now the dragon was silent and not flinging insults left and right at her. Could go without the light show, but still… Ha! As if sensing her thoughts, the cards blue shine brightened momentarily before vanishing. Akira felt a bit better knowing that, even if aggravating, the dragon was still there with her. She wasn't alone._

 _The girl yawned and rubbed her temple tiredly. She still had a hard time stomaching the whole Shadow business and falling through a dimensional portal 2 times in a single day was exhausting. She shook her head. This could wait, what she needed now was to find a place to sleep and eat. Then, hopefully, she'll be able to think of a way to deal with her monetary and documentation problems. After all, she didn't exist in this place._

 _Hefting her bag over a shoulder, the girl pulled a hood over her face and walked out of the alley and into the street._

 _ **20 MINUTES LATER**_

 _Okay, it's official, she was completely lost. Neo Domino tuned out to be huge and confusing. The anime didn't do it justice. Worse still, the inhabitants weren't overly friendly. Every time Akira tried asking for directions they either muttered about being in a hurry or outright ignored her. A this rate she'll end up sleeping on a bench somewhere._

 _Exhaling the Shadow was about to turn a corner when a commotion down the road drew her attention. Deciding it wouldn't hurt to take a look, Akira approached the scene. The first thing she noticed was laughter, 4 guys were standing there surrounding another. Second, one of the laughing guys was holding a few cards in the air, while the poor guy was jumping up and down trying to reach them and pleading them to give them back. Third, she recognized the jumping figure. Her eyes widened slightly._

' _Yanagi!'_

 _For indeed she could not mistake the yellow haori and geta wearing eccentric old timer for anyone else._

" _Hahaha! Come on, old man, you gotta jump higher if you want these so bad!"_

" _Please, give those back, those cards are very precious to me!"_

" _Hey, Tatsu! Catch!"_

 _The bully tossed the cards over to his companion, who too held them up. Poor old Yanagi had to run over and star pleading all over again._

" _Shouldn't we call the security?"_

" _Shhh! Just ignore them. They all have markers."_

"… _Good-for-nothing scum."_

" _Somebody should do something about them all."_

 _All around her the gathered crowd continued to watch and do nothing. Akira clenched her fists at hearing similar comments fly all around her. While it's true the bullies actions were despicable, the old man didn't do anything wrong to warrant such treatment. She drew a breath and slowly released it as an idea formed in her head. She knew that what she was about to do was stupid and potentially dangerous, especially with how utterly tired she was but damn the consequences, if nobody was going to do anything…_

 _Silently she moved behind the card holding bully and, while everyone was distracted, jumped up and plucked the cards right out his grasp. The bullies immediately stopped laughing and turned around to see who dared disturb them._

" _Hey! What's the big idea?!"_

 _Akira ignored him and instead approached a surprised Yanagi._

" _Here." She said without any emotion. Yanagi blinked and carefully reached out, taking his cards. After glancing down to make sure they were alright, the old man smiled up toothily at the hooded girl, tears gathering in his eyes._

" _T-thanks you, lass."_

 _His response was a nod._

" _Oi! Stop ignoring us!"_

 _One of the bullies moved to shove Akira away but the girl easily side stepped to the side. Before he or any of his cronies could do anything more, Akira held up a hand to stop and get their attention._

" _Touch me and I cry sexual harassment. I've already called the security, don't make this any harder on yourselves."_

" _Yeah, well I call bullshit."_

" _You have a marker and I don't. It's going to be my word against yours." Akira replied calmly._

" _Oi, Sagi, let's go. It's not worth going to the Detention Center again." One of the bullies tugged the leaders shoulder._

' _Just a little more.'_

" _I would run if I were you. They'll be here any second now."_

 _The thug named Sagi looked ready to explode, but shut his mouth and clenched his jaw tight, obviously realizing that this was a lose-lose situation. Briskly he turned around and started walking away, his companions running to catch up._

"… _tch! You're lucky I'm not in the mood anymore."_

 _Akira watched as the thugs rounded a corner and only then allowed herself to relax, her shoulders slumping in relief. Thanks God they actually bought that. There was no way she could've called the security and she was too tired to get into a fist-fight._

 _The crowd that's been previously attracted by the commotion was dispersing, so she turned to walk away when all of a sudden she was glommed from the side by a very happy and very teary-eyed Yanagi. Akira immediately went rigid and started struggling._

" _Oh thanks ya, lass, ya have no idea how grateful I am!"_

" _Get off me, old man!"_

" _Call me Yanagi!"_

Turned out, meeting Yanagi was a blessing in disguise. While trying to get him off, she accidentally let it slip that she needed a place to stay and the old timer, upon hearing this, dragged Akira away to meet his acquaintance, who was a landlord of an apartment complex. After much discussion, it was agreed that she could stay as long as she paid the rent. Good thing she managed to swipe the thug's wallet together with the cards then or she would have been in a lot of trouble. Ever since, Yanagi would drop by every other week and brag about the new cards he managed to find. She didn't really mind the company; it was refreshing to have someone genuinely care for your wellbeing and seek to be in your presence. Although, she could go without the hugs, gloms and crying.

Akira shuddered. She did NOT like being squeezed to death by overly emotional crying old men. It was creepy. Especially when they decided to mother hen her.

Still the problems with money and her none-existence remained. The money in the wallet could only get her so far. Good thing she had a solution for that.

 _Akira entered a bar in the back alley. She didn't waste her time observing her surroundings and moved to sit on a barstool. It didn't take long for the bartender to notice her and smile mockingly._

" _Whatcha doin' here, girly? This isn't a place for children. Go back to your mommy, I think she's callin' ya!"_

 _Laughs sounded from the bar occupants but Akira didn't move or react. She simply stared bartender in the eyes without saying a word. The Master didn't show it but he was unnerved. This wasn't how kids react, usually they squirm or look embarrassed and start apologizing. So it was no surprise that after being subjugated to an emotionless stare for more than 5 minutes he jumped at her voice._

" _I'm looking for Saiga."_

 _Hearing this Master blinked, then an angry snarl made itself known. With a loud bang he brought both of his hands down on the table and leaned in._

" _Listen, missy, I don't know who told ya about him but I would walk away right now if I were ya. Bad things happen to misbehaving children around these parts." He ground out through gritted teeth._

 _Akira didn't look fazed by the threat. She expected such treatment so she came prepared._

" _Then you'll like to know, that sector security is planning a search raid in this place next Tuesday night." She answered smoothly, giving a piece of information as a peace offering._

 _The bartender's eyes widened, before he masked his surprise into a neutral look. He gave Akira a once over before nodding._

" _Go. He'll find you."_

 _Akira nodded back in thanks, stood up and exited the bar. She managed to cross 3 blocks before a sound of a d-wheel reached her ears._

' _Right on time.' She hid her smirk just in time to see a bike stop right in front of her._

 _The rider motioned with his head behind him and Akira, understating the instruction, mounted the d-wheel behind him and accepted a helmet. They rod-_

CLANG

Akira quickly sprang up, hands whipping out like whips, and just barely managed to catch the falling cup in time. A sigh of relief escaped her lips as she placed the cup back on the table. That was close. She almost broke another glass while moving to fold her hands behind her head. Really, she needs to do something about this table, it the 6th time this week alone. Her pulse calmed down, the girl plopped back on the couch and used her arms as pillows. Where was she? Oh, yes.

 _Akira entered a darkened room and moved to lean on the window frame, folding her arms in front of her. She watched as a middle-aged with short dark brown hair entered the room and sat himself on a chair behind a desk with a laptop. He turned around and gave Akira a cautious look._

" _So, I hear you're looking for me?"_

 _Akira nodded in response._

" _I need help and I was told that you could help me with what I need." There she lied. She couldn't just say that she was "told" this by an anime show, now could she? He would probably send her to the nearest asylum._

 _Saiga raised an eyebrow but didn't question where she got the information from._

" _It's going to cost you." He said bluntly, wanting to get to business._

" _About that." Akira stood up straight and let her arms hang loose at her sides. "I don't have the money…" she quickly held up her hand when she saw Saiga frown and open his mouth to protest "…but I can offer you a favor instead."_

 _Saiga snorted but decided to humor the girl._

" _And what could you possibly give me that I don't already have."_

" _Right now? Nothing. But later, a lot." Seeing his confusion Akira elaborated "Saiga-san, I'm planning something. Something big. And I can promise you that in less than two-month time, you will want to have that favor."_

 _The self-proclaimed Jack of all trades regarded the girl with suspicion. Even if she hid most of her face with a hood, he could tell that she was young, very young. Very few people her age would talk or stand the way she did. He could tell that every word she said, she chose with great caution. Her every move was calculated and executed exactly at the right time. It was like the girl was a well-oiled machine. Her stance betraying nothing but confidence, certainty and need. Whatever help she required, she really needed it and she knew that whatever her plan was, is going to succeed._

" _If you need insurance that I will not run, you can hold on to this." Akira opened her card holster that she had bought earlier this day and after skimming through cards retrieved one of her most valuable. With a little hesitation, she held up the card for Saiga to take._

 _Still cautious, Saiga reached out and took the card into his hand. He flipped it over to take a look and his eyes widened._

' _Beelze of the Diabolic Dragons!'_

 _It was an incredibly rare and useful synchro monster. He could make tons by selling this alone. And to just give it like that…_

" _When my plan bears fruits, I'll come back for it."_

 _The hooded girls voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He looked at her for a long moment, fighting an internal battle. Saigas brain was telling him to just forget about it and toss the girl out. His instincts on the other hand, were screaming for him to except, telling him that he would later regret not accepting the deal. There was just something about her that makes you believe her. And while he was a smart and cautious man, he trusted his instincts more. You didn't survive in his business as long as he has without learning to trust them. So, taking a deep breath he nodded at her._

" _You got yourself a deal." Besides, if she decided to high tail, he could just release the information to the security and sell the card instead. He smirked a little and turned away to look at his laptop screen._

" _So, what exactly do you need help with?" he asked, typing away at the keyboard._

" _Oh, I need you to make me exist." He paused and looked weirdly at the odd girl who has returned to her previous position by the window._

" _Exist?"_

" _Birth certificate, school diploma, family history, riding license and et cetera. In other words, documentation that proves that I am real." She explained._

" _What? Are you trying to leave the past behind you or something?" Saiga laughed a little amused. He was rewarded with a small mysterious smile._

" _Something like that."_

 _Saiga tuned back to his laptop and started bringing out the necessary forms._

" _I can do that." He paused and took a gulp from the coffee he made before retrieving Akira. Then a question entered his mind. Curious he voiced it. "By the way, where did you find out about the raid on BootLeg?" he took another swing._

" _Ah, I hacked the sector security servers."_

 _And spat it right out._

They worked late into the night, filling in all the blanks and forms. By the end of the day, Akiras head hurt like hell. The information they filled in was mostly true with a few modifications here and there, so that she wouldn't mess it up if she needed to confirm a few things. But in the end it all worked out. She finally "officially" existed.

After that she was able to get a job and the much needed money for rent and food. She found a little bookstore with a café called Bluebell near a city square. Akira has to admit, she really lucked out with the job. The store's owner was a nice old lady that needed help looking after the cash register. So, when it turned out that Akiras experience with computers resulted in her having excellent math skills and a good memory, she was accepted with little trouble. Akira was just happy that she could easily access books on mechanics. There was only one real reason she needed those.

D-wheels.

Ever since she had first seen the 5D's series, she has been interested. The idea of dueling, even if it was a children's card game, while riding a motorcycle on high speeds attracted her. It was one of the main factors that had initially caught her attention and caused her to lose a few nights' of sleep watching the series. She liked it so much that back home she bought her own bike. Sure, her neighbors did not appreciate the extra noise, especially since she decided that motorcycle tricks should be added to her arsenal of weird skills, but hey, it was totally worth it in her opinion.

Back on track. D-wheels. She wanted one. And no way was she letting anyone but her touch it. Hence the mechanics cramming. Besides, she needed one if she wanted her plan to work.

Ah, yes. She mused. The plan. A scheme that would begin everything if she played her cards right... not duel monsters, just no. The first phase was quite simple – get attention. At first she thought of just going up to Goodwin and showing him her mark, but she quickly discarded the idea when she remembered just how manipulating and controlling the man was. Besides, the Lizard wouldn't be all that happy. So, she came up came up with an alternative, something way more interesting but also extremely dangerous. She would draw the attention she needed not as herself, but as a d-wheel riding masked vigilante who targeted criminals. Unfortunately, this would require a lot of work.

First thing she needed to do was to fix was her deck. While she had a lot of useful cards, the deck didn't really fit into her plan. It mainly resolved around accel synchro summoning and as that wasn't yet introduced, it would draw a lot of unwanted attention. Besides, upon entering the new world some of her monster cards have turned blank, leaving her with her regular synchro monsters, so she couldn't do that anyway. Well, and she couldn't really use it as a disguised vigilante, the deck would give her away before she could drop all the secrecy. Good thing she had a habit of taking her more rare cards with her to school. There had been a Yu-Gi-Oh! club at her old school and she was a regular there, so she usually took her cards with her so she could trade them into something more useful or whatever caught her attention at the time. Anyway, she liked synchro summoning thus she wasn't lacking in that department and she had some of her more liked fusion monsters, but she really had to find some traps and speed spells, after all, you can't use normal spells in turbo duelling. Thank god for the magical thing called the internet. Even here you could still buy Yu-gi-o-, sorry, **duel monster** cards online. So, by the end of the search, she managed to modify her own deck to fit better into current events and make a new one for her use as a masked vigilante.

Then came the hard part. Acquiring a d-wheel. Simply put, Akira didn't have enough money to get one. Those things were expensive. But lady luck or, as she was starting to suspect, a certain red lizard was on her side. A week into her search she was attacked by those same thugs she scared off of Yanagi. Seems like they realized they had been tricked and decided to get some revenge. Too bad for them Akira: one, wasn't dead tired and two, was looking for a way to went her frustration. It was slaughter after that. They didn't even realize what was happening before it was too late and they were all groaning on the ground in pain. It didn't really help that Akira actually knew how to defend herself or more specifically cause as much pain as possible to others and fought dirtier than a pirate. You didn't live in Tokyo without knowing where to aim, especially if you're a girl.

Anyway, turned out they all had d-wheels parked just outside the alley they had cornered her in. So she did the most logical thing at the time – she stripped four of them of any parts she deemed useful, nicked all of the thug's wallets, valuables and cards and made off with one still completely intact bike. She was never above some petty revenge.

The following week was spent remodeling and modifying the thing. Especially the security system. Who the hell thought it was a smart idea to secure a technologically advanced machine with a button? In the end, what stood in her garage was a black beauty with glowing green lines. Good thing she had the designs of Kawasaki Ninja H2R stored in her laptop, she was really through when she was searching to buy her bike back in her dimension. A few tweaks here and there and voilà, she had her very own d-wheel.

Coming up with costume to wear was no problem at all. She decided to imitate a few anime characters from her world and after a shopping trip through some of the darker stores she had all she needed. The only work she really had to put into was the helmet. No way was she wearing one of those that only covered half of her face, so she had the whole thing remade to cover her whole face and added a voice changer device. After all, there's no need to let people know her voice or gender.

But having a deck, a disguise and a d-wheel wasn't enough. She needed a way to force a duel onto her target. Better yet, join an already occurring duel. A smug smile spread over Akira's face. She really had to thank sector security for their carelessness someday. Yes, they were the answer to her problem, ironically. Seriously, all she really needed to do was hack their servers again and find the programing code. You see, the key to their ability to force others into duels was a few extra code lines added to their Speed World. Because of Momentum all d-wheels emit a certain signal. The security came up with an idea to use that signal as a beacon to lock onto a target and make the system believe that the rider has accepted the challenge, thus automatically activating duel mode. Simple and ingenious… for a police force using a children's card game as a weapon. Anyway, after obtaining the code all she really had to do was change and add a couple of lines and she was done. Although, when she rips her way into a duel Speed World still detects the anomaly and throws out a bunch of errors. She could probably fix it, but she was too lazy. And because of the way she enters the duels she was given a name.

The Reaper.

Akira snorted at how cliché it sounded. But it fit, if strangely.

It wasn't easy and she made a lot of mistakes at the start. But she learned. Steadily her duelling skills improved to the point where she had no problems sometimes finishing everything in one turn. From time to time she would add extra features such a jamming signal to her d-wheel and its software, improving and further evolving. Her fame grew and slowly her plan came to fruition. And now, after 6 months, here she was, one of the most feared turbo duellists, an urban legend whispered in dark corners and an equivalent of the boogeyman to the criminals and the security alike, the Reaper.

Akira threw a glance to the side near where the TV hung and smirked. There, pinned to the wall, hung a familiar white envelope with a picture of a cup on it. Indeed, her plan to get invited into the Fortune Cup tournament worked splendidly.

 _The Reaper just finished her duel with another criminal when she spotted a security blockade up the road. She was about to lift her d-wheels front wheel to make a jump when she spotted a familiar clown standing in the front. Curious she stopped a few meters away from the imp and waited. Seeing this the clown smirked and bowed theatrically._

" _The fabled Reaper, such a honor to finally meet you. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Jaeger, Head of Special Investigations. You certainly caused a lot of trouble for us in the past few months." He laughed reminding Akira of in imp._

" _But never mind that, today I am but a simple messenger."_

 _Here he pulled out a familiar envelope._

" _Reaper-san, Director Rex Goodwin would like to invite you to a duelling tournament that is happening next month. We hope that you will be attending this grand occasion." Jaeger outstretched and threw the invitation to Reaper for her to catch and turned to walk back to one of the cars blocking her way. Then he paused and peered over his shoulder._

" _Please consider this seriously and we might… overlook some of your past transgressions. Hehehehe." He laughed again as he entered his car and together with the rest of the officers rode away, leaving behind a Reaper smiling a very feral grin._

' _Phase One, get into the Fortune Cup, complete.'_

Even now she still had to struggle not to laugh every time she caught sight of the invitation. But going around and duelling criminals wasn't all she's been doing all this time. Surprisingly, she met a couple of people she didn't expect to see for a long while yet.

 _A book landed on the counter, successfully drawing Akira's attention from a complicated explanation on the inner mechanics of an engine. Silently she marked the page she was on and looked up from her seat. Her eyes slightly widened when she came face to face with none other than Izayoi Akiza, the Black Rose Witch._

" _I would like to buy this book." She spoke._

 _Shaking away her surprise Akira looked at the book in question._

' _Poetry, who would have thought?'_

 _Then she frowned when she noticed exactly which book it was._

" _I don't think you'll like this one very much."_

 _Burgundy haired girls' eyes narrowed as she gave Akira a cold look._

" _And what do you know about me?"_

' _A lot.' Akira though but knew better than to voice it._

" _Well, unless you like bias and racism you're better off finding something else."_

 _Akiza blinked, looked at the book and then the cashier._

" _It's biased?"_

" _The author seems have something against anything he deems abnormal."_

 _At this the burgundy girl let go of the book as if burned._

" _Wait here."_

 _Akira took the book and proceeded to go through the aisles. After a couple of minutes, she found what she was looking for and returned with a new book in hand. She then placed the new book in a curious yet suspicious Akiza's hands._

" _Here, this might be more to your liking."_

 _Akiza frowned but silently opened the book and read through a few poems. Her eyes widening with each one she read, losing the frown._

" _T-this is amazing." She finally briefed out._

" _This author likes to express himself through plants and their meanings, figured you'll like this more."_

" _I do!" She said without really thinking and then blushed when she realized that she had shouted it out._

 _Akira just nodded, choosing to not comment to avoid embarrassing the girl further._

" _That'll be 1800 yen."_

 _Akiza nodded and paid for the book, before turning to leave. She stopped in front of the door and turned around._

" _I-Thank you, for helping me."_

 _The Shadow shrugged._

" _It's nothing, if you need any more help just ask." She answered nonchalantly. She was then rewarded with a small smile and a nod._

And that's how she met one of the major characters in the series. Since then, Akiza would sometimes visit the store and ask if there were any more interesting books, sometimes staying a bit longer to discuss the last book she read. They weren't friends but Akira liked to think that they were good acquaintances. Of course, it didn't take long for a certain psychopath to notice this.

 _The bookstores bell rang as the door opened and closed. Akira didn't pay it any mind and continued to read her book. That was until a shadow fell over her, obscuring the books pages. Signing in irritation she looked up, toxic green meeting washed out green._

' _Uh oh, pedo alert!'_

 _The psycho smiled his fake smile, completely oblivious of the fact that he was already seen through._

" _You wouldn't happen to be Hoshikoka Akira-kun, would you?"_

 _Akira suppressed a shiver of disgust when he said her name and nodded. If anything, his smile widened._

" _Ah, then I found the right person, good." He nodded then continued "My name is Divine. And I have to admit I came here because I was worried."_

 _Akira decided it was safer to play along for now and see that the weirdo wanted._

" _About?"_

" _You see, I am one Izayoi Akizas guardian and I have been worried sick about her when disappears for hours every other day, only to return late at afternoon." He spun his story "It doesn't help that her education has been suffering as of late."_

" _And?"_

" _And I came to investigate as well as make a request." He continued when prompted, his face a mask of worry._

'… _So that's how it's going to be, huh?' she thought, figuring out the permed weirdos game but decided to play ignorant for a while longer._

" _Request?" she asked calmly._

 _He smiled, this time a bit of coldness entering his eyes._

" _To put bluntly, I want you to cut all your connections with Akiza." He finally finished._

 _Silence followed his demand. They held eye contact for a while to see who would cave first. Finally, Akira tilted her head to the side still looking him in the eyes._

" _And if I don't?"_

 _Instantly his fake smile dropped and nothing but ruthlessness and coldness remained in his eyes._

" _Then you might… accidentally get hurt." He threatened._

 _Akira wasn't fazed by the threat; she'd heard worse as the Reaper. Instead she did something completely unexpected. She beamed a very bright smile, confusing the psychic in front of the counter._

" _Divine-san, let me ask you this, where are we right now?" she asked, her tone nothing but cheerful._

" _Pardon?"_

" _Just humor me."_

 _Divine threw her another bewildered look._

" _A bookstore."_

 _She shook her head, her smile becoming predatory._

" _Wrong, we are in_ _ **my**_ _territory."_

 _Divines eyes slowly widened at the implication but before he could do anything Akira threw her hands over her bust and turned away, face distraught and eyes watering._

' _Time to make the pedo into official pedo.'_

" _KYAAAAAAAAA!" she screamed drawing the attention of every customer in the shop. She pointed her finger at a gapping psychic still keeping her other hand protectively over her breasts._

" _W-Where do you think y-you're touching me?! Pervert!"_

 _Divine regained his senses and started sputtering protests. Within seconds they were both surrounded by people._

" _Oh my god, Akira-san! Are you alright?"_

" _Hoshikoka-chan, what did that bastard do to you?!"_

 _Customers started questioning, worried for the girl. Divine was about to move when he felt a strong hand on his shoulder. Turning he came face to face with a scowling bald body builder._

" _And where do you think you're going, pedophile?"_

 _Behind him a few men cracked their knuckles._

" _Come, let's have 'nice' chat."_

 _The last thing Divine saw was an evil smile on Akiras face as he was dragged away from the store._

Akira smiled remembering that. Ah, that felt good. The weirdo has been avoiding the store like the plague ever since, making her very proud of her accomplishment. The Bluebell Pedo they called him now. Although she almost fell over laughing when after the incident the next time Akiza came by she asked if Akira knew why Divine was sporting a black eye and bruises all over his body. Apparently, the incident was so humiliating the permed psycho refused to breathe a word about it.

But that wasn't the only interesting meeting.

 _Akira was standing in front of a cahier, waiting to pay for her coffee._

" _Here you go, the special Blue-Eyes Mountain blend. That will be 3000 yen, please."_

 _Akira nodded and took out her wallet to pay. Before she could however a white clothed hand stretched out from behind her and took her cup. Irritated Akira turned around to see who dared. And surprise surprise, it was none other than the King of Turbo Duels himself, Master of Assholes and Lord of Ego, Jack Atlas. He didn't even spare her a glance as he turned around to leave._

' _Oh no you don't!'_

 _Before he could reach the exit Akira appeared in front of him stopping him in his track. He scowled angrily._

" _What do you want?"_

 _She pointed at the cup in his hand._

" _That's my coffee."_

" _Not anymore, it isn't."_

" _Because you took it."_

 _They glared at each other, sparks flying around. Finally, Jack straightened._

" _Do you even know who you are speaking too?"_

" _Yes, a thieving asshole."_

" _Asshole?! Why you lit-"_

" _Atlas-sama, please hurry, we are going to be late to a meeting."_

 _They were interrupted his blue haired secretary Sagiri Mikage. Using the interruption to his advantage, Jack pushed his way through Akira making her stumble back. But she wasn't one to give up easily._

" _Hey, at least pay up!"_

 _He stopped and smirked at her._

" _Make me!"_

 _And with what he left, his long white coat twirling behind him._

' _Rude.' Akira thought frowning._

 _One of the shops employees ran up to the frowning girl and started apologizing, to which she simply responded by waving him off, too deep in thought._

' _If I'm not mistaken, I still have some pink dye in my garage.'_

 _With those thoughts in mind she left the coffee shop, silently planning her revenge._

 _ **NEXT MORNING**_

 _The next morning Jack Atlas entered the stadiums garage, ready for today's challenger. After all, you have to prove why you are the King to your subjects from time to time. It was nothing new for him. As he entered he was greeted by a very nervous looking worker._

" _U-um, A-Atlas-sama, sir, w-we m-m-might have a-a slight p-problem…"_

 _Jack raised an eyebrow at that and asked what's the matter._

" _W-well…"_

 _The birds outside the stadium suddenly sprang up and flew away as a very loud "WHAAAAAAAT?!" scared them off._

 _ **LATER THAT DAY**_

" _Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to today's riding duel! Everybody listen and give it your all to the King of D-Wheelers! JACK ATLAS!"_

 _Silence followed the MC's proclamation. Confused the master of ceremonies looked at the opening from where Jack would usually ride out._

" _Um, JACK ATLAS!"_

 _Still silence. Then he heard it, the sound of a d-wheel approaching. Smiling brightly, he announced again._

" _Here he comes, King of D-Wheelers! JACK ATLAS!"_

 _And a d-wheel sped out of the opening, doing a lap around the stadium, before Jack came to a stop near his gapping opponent. The crowd was silent, all staring and not believing their eyes. Then as if an invisible signal sounded they all burst out laughing as one._

" _O-Oi! Jack, had a change in style?! Hahaha!"_

 _Jack growled at his opponent, his face red from shame. The crowd to were falling over themselves laughing. Not even the MC was spared as he went into a coughing fit to hide his laughter. After all, it's not every day you see the fabled Turbo Duel King riding a pink d-wheel styled to look like a unicorn and wearing a hot pink riding gear._

 _The once white frame has been dyed neon pink, a horn like attachment glued to the front with eyes painted on both sides and clouds with rainbows in the back. Also the seat was covered in pink fluffy material. Not even the wheel has been spared, glowing in rainbow pattern._

 _Glowering the King looked at the MC._

" _Start the duel already!"_

 _Trying to regain his composure the MC finally managed to speak up._

" _*cough* * cough* R-right. Okay, now! Ridding duel! Acceleration!"_

 _Both duellists started up their machines and sped off, Jack quickly overtaking his opponent at the 1_ _st_ _turn._

" _My turn, dr-"_

 _He was interrupted when music filled the stadium. At first it was simple guitar tune playing a few notes, but it was quickly joined by small dings and…_

 _ **Pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows,**_

 _ **Pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows…**_

 _With horror he realized that the music was coming from his d-wheel as people in the stadium howled with laughter._

 _ **SATELITE**_

" _AHAHAHAHA! J-Jack he- AHAHAHA!"_

" _I-I CAN'T LOOK AT THIS! HAHAHA!"_

" _T-the look on his face- pfft-_ _HAHA_ _!"_

 _Yusei looked up from his d-wheel confused. He found his friends practically dying from laughter in front of the computer. A bit alarmed he stood up and walked over to them._

" _What's the matter?"_

 _He felt someone grab his leg and looked down to see Rally with a crazed smile and tears streaming down his face._

" _J-Jack, somebody pranked Ja-ha-ha-ck!" he dissolved into laughter rolling around on the floor again unable to take it anymore._

 _Yusei raised an eyebrow at that and decided to see for himself. Walking over to the computer he leaned down to look at the monitor and stared. And stared, and stared… His lips twitched as his shoulders started shaking. He quickly smacked a palm over his mouth and wrapped an arm over his stomach to stop himself from laughing at the ridiculous sight before him. Still, a small laugh managed to escape._

" _Pfft-"_

 _Behind Yusei his friends started singing and adjusting the song._

" _Let's test your knowledge and see what you learned so far. What color is Jack?" asked Nerve with a shit eating grin._

" _PIIIIINK!" Rally, Taka and Blitz answered jumping up._

" _Where is Jack dancing?"_

" _RAINNNBOOOWS!"_

" _Please use one word to describe Jacks magical fur."_

" _Smiiiiles!" Rally grinned._

" _YEAAAAAH!"_

 _And just like that his struggle became harder._

Akira grinned remembering that, while it was hard as hell the prank was totally worth it. She had to break into the garage at night to finish everything and make sure they couldn't replace everything on time. It took a while but she managed. That asshole still owed her 3000 yen.

"What are you grinning about like a fool for this time, human?"

Akira would have jumped at the voice had she not been already used to it. Instead, she chose to let her head loll back and catch sight of the source of the disturbance. Leaning against a wall opposite to her position was a transparent form of her partner, Night Void Dragon.

"Oh nothing, just thinking about the last 6 months since I came here."

" **You** think?"

"Surprising, I know."

She felt her mark glow and raised her right arm to eye level. Carefully, she pulled up the sleeve of her coat. Her hand and forearm were covered by an aluminium gauntlet usually worn by archers for practice and battle. Over the months, she had taken to wearing it over her forearm to hide the mark of the shadow. If her theory was correct this should stop Goodwin from detecting any energy output and thus finding out she was a signer.

Right now she knew it was glowing under the protection. How? Simple, the dragons spirit behind her. She was right when she said that Signers should have powers. It's just that unlike natural users like Ruka and Akiza who could easily control their powers and were actually born with them, Signers were given their powers by the Crimson dragon and had to access them through their marks, thus the light show. Not only that, it was hard to do and even harder to train. It took Akira over a month to even get the smallest of reactions when she tried summoning duel spirits. But in the end it worked out.

"Are you going to lay there all night or finally make yourself useful and go do something for a chance?"

"Yes, yes, mother."

The dragon scoffed but instead of saying anything chose to look out the window. Over the months Akira managed to mellow the dark dragon down. Sure, the dragon still refused to call her by name but at least the insults have turned into more of a playful banter and, if Night Void was feeling unusually happy, an advice here and there. They weren't exactly friends but they trusted one another enough to have each other's backs.

Akira picked herself off the couch and moved to remove her coat. She still needed to make a few calls. Especially that one to the gay bar to inform them of a party happening at Goodwin residence. After all, she did promise to cause as much headaches as possible to the man. What better way than a gay party at his place while he was away?

Just then a brief pain sparked in Akiras mark, making her stumble, grip her arm and release a hiss. Suddenly, the lights went out anguishing the room in darkness. Night Void and Akira looked at each other alarmed but felt their gazes drawn when a bright red light shot out into the sky and a giant red dragon spread it wings. They watched as slowly the Crimson dragon dissolved and disappeared without a trace.

"So, I it begins."

"Indeed, human, indeed."

They both knew what this meant, after all they have been preparing for this for the last 6 months. They just hopped that they prepared enough. Akira smirked as her mark stopped hurting.

'I guess, its GAME START!'

* * *

 **A.N.**  
 **Oh god I actually wrote it... now I can die happy. So basically this chapter is a recap of what Akira's been up to those 6 months she has been given. And no, I could not separate this into 2 chapters, it would make no sense otherwise. So here, +10K words for a 2nd chapter.**

 **I guess I should explain a few things.**

 **First, Abysmal Vengeance. No, this trap is made up. While searching for trap cards to use in the chapter I found that Signer dragons and Earthbound Immortals have their own trap cards. So, since my dragon in made up, I created a trap for it.**

 **Abysmal** **Vengeance**

 **Activate when two or more monsters you control are destroyed and you control no other cards on the field. By discarding synchro material from hand you can Synchro Summon 1 "Night Void Dragon" from Extra Deck in Attack position. The turn this card is activated** **"Night Void Dragon" gains ATK equal to the destroyed monsters combined ATK until End Phase. If this trap card is activated during opponents turn you can discard 1 card and declare a new battle phase.**

 **So here. Basically this trap is a gamble. If its negated, you're doomed, if the opponent has sth like mirror force, you're dead meat, and if none of the above happen, then you might survive another turn or maybe win. It depends. If you're going to start shouting about OP, then please look at the activation conditions or other Signer dragon trap cards like for example Starlight Road.**

 **Second, Night Void Dragons effects. I'm not gonna write them down now, too much work. I'm just going to say that you saw 2 of them, change opponents to attack position and attack attraction, and that there's a 3rd one.**

 **Third, the aluminium gauntlet. Here you need to know a bit of chemistry and physics. Aluminium is a metal that is used for radiation shielding. It can also be used to suppress radio waves. Now, I have no idea what kind of energy the signer marks produce, but fact is they do. And Akira being who she is has no interest in becoming Goodwins pet, hence the measures to stay hidden.**

 **Fourth, yes that was Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing On Rainbows~ oh I always loved the stuff, especially when I ruined a lot of peoples hopes on the day of exams by playing the song just before our oral exam. Ended up being chased around by an angry mob, but meh~ worth it. And while writing I couldn't resist. The moment I though of painting Jacks d-wheel pink it just sort of stuck.**

 **Fifth... was there one?**

 **Meh~ I don't know. Anyway, if you have questions ask away, read and review at your own peril. This lazyass is out.**


	3. LET'S RIDE! P1

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything (only my beloven phone Ivano, Boris the laptop and a secret stash of junk-food in my wardrobe). Everything ever used in the story belong to their rightful owners, except the OCs and world conquest plans. Those are mine to use. Beware.**

* * *

Saiga watched as the young man he agreed to help existed throughout the door. Pitching the bridge of his nose he released a tired sigh.

'Friends, huh?'

To be willing to go so far as to break into Sector Security Storage Warehouse for other people's sakes… The man shook his head. He didn't know if he should scoff or be impressed. His eyes were drawn to the only picture in the room.

'Yuji.' he thought sadly. There was a time he would've done the same if not more for others, but it was a long time ago. He exhaled again and looked away. Truthfully, Yusei reminded him of another youth he knew he met 6 months ago. He snorted. Yeah, and wasn't that a surprise when they met again, 2 months after their 1st meeting.

 _Saiga entered the room after a long day. He had been out gathering useful information all day and could honestly admit that he was dead tired standing on his feet._

 _He was about to bend down and place his bag on the chair when he noticed something wrong._

 _His desk has been shifted through._

 _Cautiously, so he wouldn't alert anyone who might be watching, he peered through his bangs to look around the room._

 _"No need to be so cautious."_

 _He nearly jumped out of his skin when a mechanical voice spoke up from behind him. Wheeling around he found someone leaning on a window frame, mostly hidden in the rooms darkness. From where he stood he could see that the intruder was of average height and clad in a long black coat with ragged ends, arms crossed over their chest and a hood pulled up, but that was about it. But it was enough. It together with the mechanical voice was all he needed to know exactly who was in his room._

 _Standing up straight, Saiga addressed his unexpected guest._

 _"Reaper."_

 _The infamous duellist nodded, lifting their head higher to show a glowing green visor. But otherwise remained silent, waiting._

 _Saiga gulped. This could either be very good or very_ _ **very**_ _bad. Not much was known about the apparition before him; only that he appeared a bit over a month ago, targets criminals and is a damn good duellist. Meaning any information regarding him would sell for a small fortune, especially to criminal lords. Seems like the duellist with his actions pissed off quite a number of them._

 _Not that he would dare try something like that. That would be suicide. Saiga would rather accept whatever business Reaper had with him. Not every day a vigilante comes knocking on his doorstep._

 _On the other hand, this was an urban legend that targets criminals. And Saiga wasn't exactly on the legal side of the law._

 _Sweating a little he decided to play it safe and sat down on his chair without turning his back to the dark rider._

 _"How did you know about this place?" He asked, thinking of who could possibly have told the other._

 _"Bar." Reaper responded with a shrug._

 _Saiga felt slightly annoyed but otherwise nodded, not willing to antagonist the Reaper._

 _"And why are you here?"_

 _The other remained silent for a moment, then he answered._

 _"To take back what's mine."_

 _Saiga shot him a confused look. Reaper just lifted one hand and pointed at a cupboard where on top sat a photo with a card underneath it. But he wasn't pointing at them. His finger was directed at a card that sat next to them._

 _'Beelze?!'_

 _"Beelze of the Diabolic Dragons." The duellist confirmed Saiga's suspicions. He scowled at him._

 _"That's not yours, it belongs to someone else."_

 _The Reaper only tilted his head in what Saiga could only guess was amusement. Then he pushed off of the wall and stood up straight making Saiga tense in preparation to fight back if need be._

 _"Saiga-san, didn't I promise to you 2 months ago that I would return for it? Have you forgotten already?" The apparition said head now tilted to the other side and, despite the voice modulator, sounding honestly confused._

 _Saiga was bewildered by this._

 _'I know this guy?' He blinked and asked his tone filled with confusion._

 _"Just who the hell are you?"_

 _This seemed to disappoint the Reaper. He sighed and lifted his arms to unclasp his helmet. With a jerk the protection came off revealing black highlighted hair, unnatural toxic eyes and a familiar calm face._

 _The middle aged man's jaw dropped open not believing what he saw._

 _"A-Akira?"_

 _In response the girl's lips twitched as she placed her helmet under her armpit. She then lifted one hand and waved nonchalantly._

 _"Yo."_

 _For a long moment Saiga stared. The Reaper, one of the most mysterious, feared and hunted riding duellists, a myth, an urban legend was actually a 17-year-old girl he helped create an identity for not 2 months ago._

 _Mechanically the man turned around and started to lightly bang his head against a table. After a minute or so he stopped, let his head rest on it and started muttering to himself._

 _"This is all just a bad dream, come on Saiga, wake up, you know this is too ridiculous to be real…"_

 _He suddenly felt poke in his side. Turning his head, he found a crouching Akira with her finger extended next to him._

 _"Not a dream." She spoke still staring calmly as ever but he could see faint traces of amusement in her eyes._

 _He signed and sat up straighter, placing his hand on his temple._

 _"I'm beginning to wish it was." He grumbled under his breath._

 _The man sighed, feeling a headache coming and looked over the girl. That was definitely all the gear Reaper was known to wear so no matter how ridiculous it seemed, the girl in front of him really was the infamous rider. There were millions of questions whirling around in his head just waiting to be asked. Finally, he gave up and asked._

 _"So this is the favour you were talking about? The one you said would be worth the trouble?"_

 _A small smirk graced her lips._

 _"Isn't it?"_

 _He pondered for a moment before nodding._

 _"Good point."_

 _And it was, it's not every day you have someone as infamous as the Reaper in your dept. Not everyone could brag about something like this. Still…_

 _"This was the plan you were talking about, becoming a vigilante and taking care of all the criminals around?"_

 _Saiga watched as Akira stood up and moved around the room to stand in front of the cupboard her card was on._

 _"Part of it."_

 _"Part of it?"_

 _She nodded but didn't say elaborate. He watched her for a second before opening his mouth to speak._

 _"You do know, half of the criminal world is after you and security are all up in arms."_

 _"That's what I need."_

 _Saiga paused at the short and blunt reply._

 _"What you need?" He asked her, baffled as to what she could possibly gain from this._

 _Akira nodded calmly as she took her card and turned around to face Saiga._

 _"I need attention and this is the fastest way."_

 _He stared at the girl disbelieving._

 _'Does she even-' he cut himself off and scoffed at her._

 _"Do you have any idea how dangerous it is?"_

 _"I do." She nodded, the calm look now replaced by a serious expression._

 _Saiga blinked surprised, having not expected her to suddenly turn serious, then narrowed his eyes._

 _"Not that it's any of my business, but why would you go so far as attracting the attention of the most dangerous factions in the city?"_

 _Akira remained silent, staring out the window. Saiga was about to give up getting his answer when she suddenly spoke up._

 _"Because it will help save people."_

 _The man's eyes widened at her answer. He could tell from the tone in her voice that she honestly believed it. Slowly his features twisted into a scowl. This girl…_

 _"You're doing this for others? Becoming a target, attacking criminals, running from security. You'd do all of this just to help a few people?"_

 _She nodded. Saiga gritted his teeth, was this girl that naive? This isn't how the world works! Anger flooded his system as he remembered that fateful day he lost his friend. He suddenly stood up, the force of the sudden movement sending the chair skidding back. Akira silently looked on at the angry man, her expression still serious._

 _"Don't you get it?! One mistake and you're a goner! It won't be just a marker and a facility for you, it will be a fate worse than death! If the security doesn't get rid of you, the crime lords after you will! Just do yourself a favour and stop it right now. The world has enough 'heroes'. Those people you are trying to 'help save' won't thank you." Then in a more quiet tone he added more to himself than anyone else "They will only abandon you in the end."_

 _Saiga stared at the picture of his friend as he said the last words so he didn't have to see Akira's face._

 _'That's right, in the end, you are left alone by yourself.' He though bitterly to himself._

 _"You know," Akira's calm voice prompted him to turn his eyes to look back at the girl. Said girl now stood swaying on the balls of her feet looking up at ceiling "there's a key difference between a hero and other people." Slowly her eyes turned to stare right at him. "Heroes are selfless." A small smile pulled at the corners of her lips. "And I'm very selfish."_

 _"What?" Saiga asked, not understanding where the other was going with this, his previous anger slowly leaving him._

 _"A hero, you called me a hero." She clarified._

 _"Aren't you?" He scoffed. Akira shook her head._

 _"No." She told him bluntly before continuing, flames of determination the likes he hasn't seen in anyone before lighting up her already unnaturally bright green eyes, making them seem even more ethereal. "But if you knew how to save someone but didn't, would you be able to live with yourself? Knowing that you somehow could've changed something so that they and those precious to them didn't have to suffer." The girl, no, the young woman in front of Saiga asked him while staring directly into his eyes. Twin orbs of green fire demanding the truth._

 _Saiga opened his mouth to answer but froze. His expression melting into one of doubt. He… he didn't really know. Could he? Involuntarily, his eyes wondered to the picture and there he saw his answer._

 _'No, I couldn't.' he thought to himself. He wouldn't want anyone to feel the way he does. So… alone…_

 _Quickly Saiga shook his head to get rid of his thoughts but it was too late. A small knowing smile appeared on Akira's face and she bobbed her head in agreement. There was a moment of silence between the pair before Saiga addressed the young woman in a more quite tone._

 _"And you think you'll be able to prevent their suffering?"_

 _Akira hummed as she looked away._

 _"Who knows?" She answered, her smile turning mysterious. "But at least I'll try."_

 _Saiga couldn't keep himself from snorting. He shook his head; this girl was really something else entirely. And… he looked at the girl._

 _Akira was now standing in front of the window again watching something outside curiously, the fire that previously burned so brightly in her eyes now gone and replaced by the ever-calm look he was becoming so familiar with. It was hard to imagine that this girl was only 17 and could speak with such conviction._

 _His eyes softened a little. Whatever she was trying to do, whoever she was trying to help… he sincerely hoped she would succeed._

 _Suddenly the girl turned around and started walking to the exit, startling Saiga a little more than he would like to admit. Her voice caught his attention._

 _"I have what I came for and you know what kind of favour you have. My number is in the laptop."_

 _At the door she paused and turned around, confusing the man._

 _"You know," she spoke before pointing at the cupboard "there might be another reason why your friend sent you that card."_

 _Saiga nearly jumped out of his skin hearing this. Instantly, he was on guard._

 _"How do you know about that?"_

 _Akira opened the door and went through, but before she closed it she placed a finger on her lips and answered._

 _"A secret makes a woman, woman."_

 _And with that she closed the door leaving a thoroughly confused and baffled man behind._

Saiga shook his head. Those two were similar alright, yet very different at the same time. Where Yusei was serious, she was calm. Where one was straightforward, the other was a mystery and secretive. But…

Saiga grimaced a little and shifted his gaze to look at the floor. They both cared more about others than themselves and were more stubborn than it was healthy. He had seen the burning determination in Akiras eyes that night. And frankly, it scared him. People with that kind of strength and dedication could either bring about miracles or… complete and utter destruction.

And worse, it affected those around them. Him not being an exception to the rule. Saiga frowned. Akira, even if very reluctant, had an air around her that drew people to her. That, coupled with her resolve, made it hard to doubt her words. No matter how much he wanted to deny it, a small part of Saiga believed in her, in her success. And the young man he just helped seemed to be the same way, albeit not as reckless.

His eye twitched in irritation. After Akira left that night 4 months ago, Saiga made a silent decision to at least sometimes take a look at how she was doing with her vigilante work. He quickly started regretting the decision when not even a week after the meeting came a report of the infamous Reaper jumping off the bridge and onto the road bellow while escaping the security. It was a miracle she didn't crash! But it was nowhere near the heart attack he almost had 2 months ago after hearing about the road crash that resulted in 5 duellists being hospitalised. He had feared the worst at the mention of Reapers involvement. Fortunately, or more like stupidly lucky, the girl came out of the ordeal completely unscathed.

Taking on 5 duellists at the same time! And while speeding on d-wheels, in heavy rain, at night! Just what the hell was that girl thinking?! The man was pretty sure Akira took the term "reckless" to a whole new level. And it wasn't the end of it.

Almost every report that came after, mentioned the Reaper pulling similar crazy stunts. From kicking others while riding, to outright jumping off her bike. The security were of an opinion that they were dealing with a madman. At least officially. Unofficially, there were rumours that Reaper was actually a ghost of a dead turbo duellist who came to exalt his revenge on those that wronged him in life. While it sounded stupid and childish at first, after last week it became a serious theory.

A shiver ran down Saiga's back. For the past week security kept reporting one thing repeatedly over and over again: "Reaper was laughing like a madman." He had heard the recordings and could honestly say that it was one of the scariest sounds he has ever heard. Akira herself might have a nice laugh, he wouldn't know and would be surprised if he ever did, but whatever she did to her voice modulator made it come out like a hollow screech of metal against metal, sounding completely and utterly insane.

'Maybe I should have questioned her more that night. At least have gotten her to swear not to do any crazy life endangering stunts.' he mussed after shaking of the memories.

Well, no use in crying over spilled milk.

Still, he would take dealing with Yusei any day, even if the guy was nosy and kept poking in other people's business. That girl was simply too damn confusing, unpredictable and seemed to thrive in the chaos she left in her wake!

Saiga shuddered as he glanced at his laptop. Oh yes, she didn't only leave her number the night they met again. She also changed his desktop background… into a picture of a muscular naked man with rainbow wings jumping in mid-air.

Another shudder wracked his body, it took him over 2 weeks to get rid of that abomination. Whatever she did to his laptop messed with the software so bad it refused to even open the personification window… as if afraid.

His thoughts of horror were interrupted by the sound of an engine. Looking out the window he was alarmed to find a security bike driving away after his young client.

He did not like the meaning of this.

For a moment Saiga considered just ignoring it. It's not like it's any of his business.

 _"But if you knew how to save someone but didn't, would you be able to live with yourself?"_

Those haunting words spoken to him 4 months ago came to mind.

 _"Because the bonds with my friends are there. I'm just going to get what's stolen from me back."_

Followed closely by Yusei's words he heard just moments ago.

'Would I dare help him?' Saiga glanced at the photo. Yuji's laughing face smiled back at him.

He his decision.

Grabbing his phone, he pushed in a number and waited for it to stop ringing. He didn't have to wait long before it was picked up.

"Hey, remember that favour you owe me?"

* * *

Speeding down the halls of a dark building Yusei was not having a good day. First, he had to sneak into a heavily guarded building and wait it out until everyone else left. Then, when he found his d-wheel he was ambushed by Ushio and the security. And finally, he just had to fall through an elevator shaft to get away from the obsessed officer.

So no, if anyone were to ask him, he was not having a good day.

As he rode through the halls, his communicator came to life and Saiga's voice entered his ears.

"Oi, Yusei, hold on a few more minutes, help is on the way!"

Yusei's eyebrows creased in surprise and confusion.

'Help?'

He shook of his thoughts and concentrated on the road. It was quiet for a moment before he heard an unmistakable sound of a d-wheel.

"Oh, no you don't!"

He looked up just in time to see Ushio force his bike through the railings. The officer landed to next him and Yusei had to grit his teeth as the other rammed right into his d-wheel.

"So, scum, thought you could escape, huh?" Ushio smiled malevolently.

Before either could do anything else a beeping coming from both of their bikes interrupted them. While Yusei looked confused, Ushio paled.

Yusei's confusion quickly turned to alarm as he saw error messages start popping out on his bikes screen. From the corner of his eye he could see the same happening with Ushio's d-wheel. He looked up to see a similar phenomena occurring in Speed World all around them. Then suddenly as the errors came they left without a trace.

"No, not now, not **him**." It was barely a whisper but he still heard it.

"Who?" Yusei asked turning to the no longer smiling officer. To his surprise he saw genuine fear in the eyes of the usually arrogant and bull-headed officer.

" _Duel Mode, on-Auto Pilot, standby."_

He blinked as he saw a 3rd field appear on his screen.

 **? 2350LP SC4**

Yusei looked to Ushio for answers. Said officer turned even whiter.

"Re-"

Ushio was interrupted by a black gloved hand suddenly appearing in front of his face. The hand grabbed a hold of his face and with a powerful jerk shoved the officer and his d-wheel into the back.

Yusei whipped around to follow the hand to its owner. What he found made him tense up. Ridding up to him was a black d-wheel with glowing green accents, it's rider completely hidden by a black long coat and hood they wore. As if feeling his eyes, the rider turned around from where they were looking behind them and Yusei was met with a green visor that completely covered the figures face. A light shudder went down his back. Even he had to admit that the black rider made quite an intimidating and sinister sight.

Tense and guarded he addresses the new arrival.

"Who are you?"

Instead of answering him, the rider lifted his hand to his helmet and pressed a button there.

"Found him." Yusei twitched slightly at the sound of a mechanical voice.

Although, he was very surprised when he heard Saiga's voice answer not only in his earpiece but also the dark riders.

"Good, I'm keeping the command centre occupied, get him out of here and head for the coordinates I sent you. This is more your expertise than mine, anyway." the black rider responded with a nod.

"Wait!" Yusei spoke up words directed to the communicator "Why are you here, helping me?"

"I just wanted to see the fate of someone who casually prattles on about 'bonds with friends' like you. I don't have any mushy-gushy feelings for fitness, or what have you. I'll just have what you owe me figure up financially." And so Saiga proceeded to tell his story.

* * *

Reaper watched the conversation she remembered was important to Saiga, all the while keeping a close eye on her surroundings. She knew that the hard shove she gave Ushio would not be enough to deter the officer. She released an irritated sigh. This was certainly not how she imagined spending her evening when she got out of bed today.

It had been a week or so since the appearance of the Crimson Dragon in the middle of a sky. And while its arrival short circuited most of the energy in the city and caused quite a panic, it quickly wore off when the lights came back and Goodwin made an excuse by saying Kaiba Corps new prototype experiment went wrong. After that everything went back to normal.

Well, almost everything. Akira, giddy with excitement, ended up spending almost every night after that tinkering with her d-wheel and decks. This of course resulted with Night Void nagging, her lacking sleep and turning into a silent zombie during the day; her way of conserving what little energy she had left. Reaper too hadn't been idle during the week. Criminals and security alike quickly learned that a happy Reaper was far worse than a hyperactive kid on sugar high, attacking everything and everyone until they had at most a measly 100LP left and then finishing with attacks so overwhelming it wasn't even funny. The security offices that week were flooded with all kinds of crooks giving themselves up, just to escape the cackling psycho. Practically no one was spared from her happiness, especially if your last name happens to be Goodwin, the Director becoming a target of multiple pranks: from his hair suddenly developing a pink glitter to waking up hanging upside down a skyscraper with words "LOOKING FOR DATE, CALL NUMBER XXXXX" written on his back with a permanent marker. Of course being who he was, Goodwin managed to delete all the existing footage but the fact remained that someone managed to prank him and prank him hard, making the man develop a twitch in his right eye every time someone even so much as mention colour pink. To say the least, it was an eventful week for the city of Neo Domino. Although, Yanagi still ended up arrested.

Today started out as one of the calmer ones. Akira even had the time to finish another book on mechanics before heading out to work. It was during her job at BlueBell that an unexpected phone call came.

She would honestly admit that, out of all the possibilities, she never, not even in her wildest dreams, would have guessed that Saiga would call her favour in for this: help Yusei escape the security storage warehouse with his ride.

So, later that evening after returning home she didn't waste any time and after quickly pulling on her Reaper garb left for Saiga's place.

There she met a stressed Saiga who quickly explained the situation, not that she really needed it knowing everything from the anime, and told what they were going to do. Both of them will have to break into the warehouse where they would split up to do their individual work: Saiga would go and hack into the building network to keep the command centre busy while Reaper would go look for Yusei and if a need arises, help him out. Plans made, they hopped onto their respected d-wheels and rode away.

Reaper grimaced. It took her a while but she eventually found their guy. Unfortunately, he was already in the middle of a duel, not to mention about to be squashed between Ushio and a wall. Not really having any other choice she activated her modified Speed World and using it as a distraction rode up to the officer, only to grab his face and shove him off the road. Good thing she tinkered with the breaks or she would have never had the strength to do something like that without falling off herself.

Getting back to reality, Reaper saw a flash of lights from a corner of her eyes.

'And here we go.' She sighed and prepared for a duel.

* * *

Having made his declaration to Saiga, Yusei directed his gaze at the silent rider next to him. So far, the mysterious person hasn't spoken a word since getting rid of Ushio and seemed to be deep in thought.

"Saiga, who is this?" Yusei asked curious about the duellist. Silence reigned for a split second before Saiga's voice filtered through his helmet, although he sounded a bit distracted.

"You could call 'him' Neo Dominos expert on escaping the security. Don't worry, I asked 'him' to help you out."

"Expert?"

"If you get out of there in tact you'll eventually hear about 'him'."

While Saiga's answer explained a few things, it still didn't answer his question. Though, Yusei raised an eyebrow curiously, whenever Saiga talked about the duellist, something about the way he strained the word "him" sounded suspicious. Before he could question further he was interrupted by a returning Ushio.

"Hold it there!" Shouted Ushio irritated.

'Tch.' The Satellite silently watched as the officer rode up to them. When he finally reached a duelling distance, Ushio's face split into a grin as his eyes fell on the dark rider. Although, the young man noticed that it looked more forced and fake than usual.

"Well well well, look who decided to join the party." He laughed. "Finally showing your true colours, huh? Doesn't matter, I'll get you too for all the trouble you caused us for the last 6 months, you vigilante scu-"

"Draw." The mysterious rider finally spoke while drawing a card from his deck. Yusei's lips twitched in amusement when he saw Ushio turn red faced and sputter in indignation at the interruption. Apparently the other rider wasn't too keen on talking.

"I play 3 cards face down. Then, because I control no monsters, I can special summon Evil HERO Infernal Prodigy." A monster jumped out of a blue vortex, grinning insanely at all those looking.

 **Evil HERO Infernal Prodigy (LV2 ATK/300 DEF/600)**

"Now, since Ushio-baka controls a monster, I can tribute summon Evil HERO Malicious Edge with only 1 tribute." The grinning monster disappeared and its place took an intimidating dark monster with long metal claws and wings on its back.

 **Evil HERO Malicious Edge (LV7 ATK/2600 DEF/1800)**

"Oi! What did you call me?!" He was ignored.

"With this I end my turn." The duellist ended and gestured for Yusei to continue.

Nodding he drew a card.

"My turn! Discord Counter's effect has already lapsed. I summon Speed Warrior from my hand!"

 **Speed Warrior (LV2 ATK/900 DEF/400)**

"Speed Warrior has its attack power doubled for the turn it's summoned."

Before the effect could take hold Ushio started laughing.

"I knew it! I activate a Trap card! Power Bind! This card can be activated when an opposing monster is summoned. That monster can't attack during this turn and its attack power gets reduced to 0 until your next End Phase!" Ushio laughed again enjoying the moment. "Too bad! If its ATK had doubled it could have destroyed my Search Striker!"

'So he's targeting me specifically.' Thought Yusei as he glanced at the rider next to him who was calmly observing the duel.

"I activate the Speed Spell, Reactor Pod, from my hand!" He placed the spell card. "This card can be activated when you have four or more SC. By selecting a monster with 1000 or lower ATK on my field, the opposing player receives damage equal to the monster's original ATK!" Yusei explained and directing his attention to Ushio he finished activating the cards effect. "Turn Speed Warrior's ATK of 900 into damage for Ushio!"

 **Ushio LP2400 SC6**

"You've gone and done it now, you piece of trash!" The officer produced an angry growl.

The satellite just placed a spell/trap card face down and declared his turns end.

"Dammit… Draw! I'll crush you, you 0 ATK hunk of scrap metal! I use Search Striker to attack Speed Warrior!"

"I activate a Trap! Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!" A trap card sprang up and negated an attack before closing back down.

Ushio drowned in dissatisfaction.

"In that case… Permanent Trap, Final Countdown!" Ushio lifted his hand and gestured for the trap to activate. Fortunately, before he could continue a mechanical voice interrupted him.

"Trap card activate, Dark Bribe." Spoke the dark rider drawing everyone's attention to himself. "This card negates an activation of a trap or a spell and destroys them." Final Countdown exploded into shards. "Then the owner of the card draws a card." Finished the rider drawing a feral growl from Ushio.

Angry at the unexpected counter Ushio forcefully drew a card.

"Fine! I set one card face down and end my turn!" Finished the officer started growling at the rider.

"Aren't you supposed to be targeting criminals?!" Ushio pointed at Yusei. "He's a criminal scum, worst of the kind and you're helping him!"

Yusei stiffened at that and looked cautiously at the dark rider. While he didn't consider what he was doing a crime, others might not share his opinion. After all, technically he was trespassing. It didn't help that now he had a marker. And if Ushio's slip from before was true about the mysterious rider being a vigilante that targets criminals, he might be in a lot more trouble than he first thought. Before he could get any more riled up Saiga spoke up through his helmet.

"Don't worry, that 'guy's' on our side. 'He's' a lot more open-minded than the others give 'him' credit for." This made the duellist relax somewhat. However, Saiga's next words made him look up in confusion. "And I think Ushio's starting to annoy 'him'. That's something you don't do with that type and we're likely about to see why."

And sure enough, when Yusei glanced to the side, despite the duellists face being covered by a visor he could practically feel annoyance rolling off in waves from the dark rider as Ushio continued spouting about justice and crime. Finally, the duellist snapped.

Releasing one of the D-wheel handles, the duellist began to speedily type on his monitor producing all kinds of beeping noises. This of course silenced Ushio who stared in confusion, not understanding what the other was doing.

"Oi! What the hell are you doing?" The officer tried to get the riders attention but was brushed off.

A long beep signalled that whatever the duellist has done was successful. Nodding in satisfaction, he raised his hand, pressed something on his helmet and cleared his throat. What happened next had everyone present looking at the other in astonishment.

"Command centre! This is officer Ushio Tetsu reporting!" Instead of a mechanical voice what came out from the duellist was a voice identical to Ushio's. "I request emergency back up! The Reaper has appeared and is currently helping the fugitive! We are currently heading towards the west exit! I repeat, the Reaper has been sighted and is currently heading west! I request immediate back up! Over!" The duellist clicked the switch and ended the radio call.

A long silence followed as the duellists continued to ride through the halls and stare at the now named Reaper incredulously. Said rider was inspecting his glowed fingers in a show of smug satisfaction. Finally, the officer snapped out of his trance. Hurriedly he started punching buttons on this d-wheel but whatever he was trying to do seemed to fail and he threw a withering glare at Reaper.

"Damn trash, what the hell did you do?! I can't contact the command!" He shouted, starting to panic.

That snapped out Yusei as he looked at the rider. Behind his helmets visor his eyes widened slightly as he finally understood what was it Reaper has done. Unexpectedly, a roaring laugh exploded in his ears.

"Hahaha, now that's what I call a distraction!" Saiga said between laughs.

"Distraction?" He asked a bit confused.

"Yusei, you're heading east and Reaper just sent everyone running down west! The way is practically clear save a few!" Then he quitted down and Yusei could practically see the grin that was on the older man's face. "And guess who gets blamed for this failure?"

A smirk made its way on the Satellites face. While Yusei knew that laughing at others misfortune is wrong even he couldn't help but admit that officer Ushio Tetsu was an irritating twat.

An angry scream drew his attention back to the duel.

"YOU! Vigilante scu-"

"You talk too much. Draw." and once again Reaper proved to be disinterested in the officer's words. "I place 2 cards face down and end my turn."

Yusei's brows creased in confusion. So far the duellist had been very passive during the duel, save for that trap card negation and summoning of a powerful monster. He knew Reaper, he guessed that's what the other called himself after hearing the radio call, could have done something already if he wanted to, but he couldn't understand why didn't he. The rider seemed to notice his dilemma and tilted his head in invitation to question.

"Why aren't you doing anything?" asked the blue eyed duellist. It wasn't a demand, merely a curious inquiry. However, instead answering the dark rider replied with his own.

"Don't you have something to prove with this duel?" Hearing this Yusei's eyes slightly widen in sunrise, a light of understanding entered his eyes before they narrowed in determination and he nodded his thanks to the duellist.

'He's letting me prove my point to Saiga.' A corner of his lips lifted into a small smile as he began his turn.

"My turn!"

* * *

The duel continued pretty much as it had in the anime with Yusei summoning Turbo Warrior. Well, except for the part where Ushio tried to sick his monster on Reaper. Apparently, the idiot wanted to get some revenge for the stunt she pulled on him. She awarded him with Magic Cylinder for his efforts.

The warehouses walls were starting to narrow as they sped further down the halls and it could only mean one thing.

They were nearing the exit.

Reaper tensed as she saw Ushio's monsters ATK decrease. If everything went according to the show, the officer would be coming up for an attack any second now. Thing is, there were some key differences: one, this wasn't a TV show right now, two, she was here taking Saiga's place and three, no way was she losing her ride.

Reaper ground her teeth in irritation. She did not like what she would have to do next. Certainly, tomorrow she will be feeling the bruises… if she manages to get away and not crash after the stunt she's about to pull.

The disguised girl threw a concerned glance to the side where another youth rode a red d-wheel. Sure, she made sure that most of the security would be milling around the opposite exit. Problem is, that didn't mean that all of them left the west exit unchecked. So it was quite likely that the guy will still get electrocuted.

'At least he'll get to meet the twins.' That thought made Reapers mood lighten, if a bit.

Blinking away the thoughts the girl quickly asserted the situation: she could see the exit, Yusei just activated Synchro Strike and Ushio has already readjusted his grip on the handles.

'So it's like in the show, after all.'

Knowing she had very little time left Reaper whipped around and shouted at Yusei.

"Oi, speed up now, whatever happens, don't slow down!" After a small pause she added "Oh, and dodge."

Her raised voice seemed to startle the other duellist but after a brief moment of contemplation he seemed to accept the order. Although, he did send a weird look her away at the last part.

And sure enough, not a moment too soon Ushio sped up and started trying ram into Yusei. Thankfully, her warning helped him avoid the collision just in time.

Reaper closed her eyes and took a deep breath before released it.

'Showtime!' Her eyes snapped open revealing two burning pools of poisonous green full of determination.

The black d-wheel suddenly picked up speed and within second positioned itself just in front of the officer's bike. This seemed to gain the others attention but it was too late. Suddenly, Reaper leaned onto the front wheel and hit the brakes. In response to the sudden action the black bikes back wheel rose into the air and, thanks to the decrease in speed, landed right on top of the front of Ushio's d-wheel, spinning mare inches away from his face. Said officer quickly turned pale as he realised how close he came to being mauled.

"O-oi! Vigilante trash, w-what do y-you think you're doing? You're in the way!" He shouted angrily but you could easily hear the panic in his voice. But Reaper didn't listen. Instead, she quickly released the handles, knowing that thanks to the autopilot function her d-wheel should stay more or less steady in its current position, and turned her body around so that she was fully facing the officer.

Ushio was looking at her with not a small look of fear, his jaw hanging slightly open. Probably didn't expect her to do something of this sort. From the corner of her eye Reaper could see that Yusei was anxiously observing everything that was unfolding, ready to intervene. He didn't slow down, though.

'Good.' She nodded in approval before directing her attention back at the freaked out idiot.

Tensing she did the unthinkable: she leaped, her long ragged coat flaring out like an angry raven's wings. Using Ushio's broad shoulders for a support grip she righted herself mid-air and before long she was seated behind the officer. Reaper didn't waste any time and started doing what anyone who wanted to cause as much destruction as possible in a short time would do. She started pulling the d-wheels wires.

Ushio quickly snapped out of his fear and started struggling.

"Get off, pest!" He threw his elbow back attempting to hit his new uninvited passenger. Reaper grunted slightly as some of the blows landed, already knowing that they would leave some nasty bruises. While still "working" and blocking the elbows she yelled at the red duellist.

"Attack already!"

"But-"

"I'll be fine!" She rolled her eyes behind her helmet.

He still seemed to hesitate so she lifted one of the wires she disconnected knowing that the other should recognise it. And sure enough, Yusei's eyes widened when he saw the dangling wire. Whose wouldn't, when they knew that it connected the cooling system with the main computer? Disable that and a huge error occurs, automatically shutting down all the bikes systems.

At that moment Saiga's voice came through, sounding more spirited than ever.

"Yusei, finish him! For your friends! Weave the bonds! I'll make sure Reaper's alright!"

Gathering his resolve, he nodded and gestured at his monster.

"Go, Turbo Warrior! Attack his Goyo Guardian! Pierce, Axel Slash!" he shouted and not a moment too soon the red warrior sprang up and slashed its clawed hand into the other monster.

Taking the chance provided by the battles distraction, Reaper finished ripping out the last wire. Quickly standing up, she placed both of her hands on Ushio's shoulders, provoking a squawk of indignation, and leaped over his head, landing back on her bike. It wobbled and for a moment she was sure that it would topple over, but thankfully the black d-wheel held on.

A moment later the security d-wheels compartments opened up and it released a burst of steam. Using it as a springboard Reaper dislodged her machine from the other and landed roughly on 2 wheels, her speed becoming almost non-existent. Ushio wasn't so lucky, however. Her "work" on his d-wheel ended with him crashing into a pillar. The officer himself was out like the light, mostly uninjured, but still out.

"Reaper!" The shout made her look up startled. She was surprised to see Yusei looking back at her with concern. Shaking her head, she pointed her finger at the exit.

"Go!"

He opened his mouth to argue but it was a bit too late. The raven-haired duellist finally reached the exit and disappeared from sight after going through.

Reaper finally drew to a stop and after a moment slummed down on her bike releasing a deep breath. Although, seconds later she hissed in pain at the sudden movement. Gingerly she lifted her shirt to inspect her injuries.

"Crap…" they were worse than she thought. Already fist sized red blotches were turning purple and blue. And boy were there a lot of them.

'I'm definitely felling this next morning.' With a sigh of resignation Reaper released her shirt and focused again. The commotion outside has died down so she could only guess the security were regrouping to start a search. It was a perfect time for her to make her escape. But before that…

"Saiga-san." Reaper spoke into her communicator. She didn't have to wait long for a reply.

"Akira! Are you alright? The security said something about Yusei escaping on the radio but there was nothing on you! Where are you?" The man's voice was filled with both relief at hearing her and panic because of her apparent disappearance.

"I'm fine, near east exit." she told him calmly.

"What?! What are you still doing there?! The security's about to swarm the place!"

"Waiting."

"For what?!"

"For them to swarm the place."

There was a long pause before Saiga spoke once more, voice filled with suspicion.

"You're about to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous, aren't you?"

The fact that she didn't reply spoke volumes. Instead Reaper straightened up in her seat, ignoring the sharp sting from her injuries, and started up her d-wheel. She heard a huff from the other end.

"Whatever you do, at least try to be careful." her lips twitched into a small smile at the concert she heard in the male's voice before it was replaced by her usual calm demeanour as she gripped the bikes handles hard.

"Meet you at your place in 2 hours." That said Reaper slammed on accelerator and in seconds flew out through the exit and into the night to continue a wild goose chase around the city that lasted for well over an hour only for the Reaper to once again elude the security and disappear.

* * *

 **A.N.**

 **So I took my time writing this. Nah, it wasn't because I lost interest or anything, it's just that a lot of work and studies caught up with me. I'm still busy but managed to squeeze in some time to write this chapter.**

 **Now, about the chapter itself. If you read the title you've probably noticed that it says P1. Yes, this does stand for Part 1. Honestly, the whole chapter isn't even finished yet, but while writing the second part I noticed that I was going over 12K, so I decided to divide the whole thing into 2 parts: the warehouse chase and the retrieval.**

 **Writing this chapter has been hard but interesting. Hard because my English is mostly self-taught, writing included, and I'm having a bit of a problem grasping Yusei's character, so sorry if he seems a bit OOC, but interesting because the action is starting.**

 **Ah, yes, action. If you haven't yet noticed, I'll point this out. The story will not only contain duels, because it wouldn't be Yu-Gi-Oh! otherwise (although, I will focus more on Akira's duels and what her presence changes), but also action, fighting and crazy stunts. SPOILER AHEAD (don't read the next sentence if you don't want to know... does anyone even read this?). There is a moment where Akira jumps off of a skyscraper with only a fire extinguisher, an axe and a fire hose wrapped around her shoulders and stomach still being processed somewhere in my mind. SPOILER DONE. So, yeah, crazy stuffs going to happen.**

 **There was also something I wanted to clear up. While Akira is the main character in this story, Yusei is still the protagonist of 5D's. Don't get me wrong, while I like Akira, I do not want to outshine Yusei and suddenly give all the credit to the OC. She herself, doesn't want to, as shown by her reluctance to duel in the warehouse, there are just some things that are better left the way they are. Besides, before long you'll probably start noticing that there is something not right with Akira. Let me just tell you that there is a lot more to her seemingly calm demeanour than it seems. Oh, but do keep in mind that Akira knows of all of the events that are going to happen, so don't be surprised that she actually prepares for them and plans out her actions. Well, except the ones that are caused by her presence. I am planning to write a few arcs between the main events if I don't get lazy, but with the summer coming, I doubt it.**

 **Fun fact, I actually do own all of the cards and decks Akira uses, Evil Heroes/fiend deck included. And whenever I try to write duel scenes I place the deck in front of me and draw the cards to see what hands I get. So far, I've been using what I draw to write out the scenes. Although, I had to modify them in order to better fit the anime logic, don't want every duel to end in one turn.**

 **Anyway, I said most of the stuff that's been nagging at me. Read and review if you dare, so far nobody does, haha~ I'm going to sleep and still need to catch the mail man, my Stardust Sifr Divine Dragon should be arriving any day now, finally I'll have my Stardust Archetype complete, well, except the Stardust Assault Warrior, they still need to release that one in TCG. Oh and Shining Victories is finally here, you can start looking for Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon now, I know I will be raiding the stores. Damn, I talk a lot. Ta~**


	4. LET'S RIDE! P2

**_IMPORTANT ALERT: Good news, the bug's fixed. Now review people till your fingers fall off..._**

* * *

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything (only my beloven phone Ivano, Boris the laptop and a secret stash of junk-food in my wardrobe). Everything ever used in the story belong to their rightful owners, except the OCs and that spider on my wall. It's creepy.**

 **Okay, first of all, thanks for the reviews. No really, big thanks. You have no idea just how big of an encouragement a single review can be. Now then, I tried writing this out as fast as I could because I really wanted to answer a few questions in one of them.**

 ** _Yoru no Kodomo_ , first of all, thanks. I really like it when people think about what they read and make their own opinions. I don't know about Akira being realistic, because if I had to describe her, the 1st word that comes to mind is CHAOS, then again, normal is overrated. But I do like to think that she is an interesting character. The pranking of Goodwin is actually part of the deal with The Crimson Dragon to cause the guy as much headaches as possible. So yeah, random parties at his home, prank attacks at work and then a vigilante running loose in his city... That poor man, no wonder he has grey hair.  
** **About the Evil HERO deck. Don't worry, I'm keeping that for a while and even when Akira takes up her real deck, the one she brought with herself from the Origin (real world, whatever, meh), the deck won't disappear, it's still going to make appearances here and there. Besides, I dropped a pretty big hint on what that deck is, those that still play the game will probably notice it immediately. I won't tell where it is though. Would be too easy. Do keep in mind that I edit the chapters from time to time, either finding grammar mistakes or simply not liking the contents.  
** **And now the thing that's probably confused not only you, but many of those that read this story. The modified Speed Worlds LP and SC. Truthfully, I left this out of any of my explanations on purpose. Wanted to see if people would notice the connection between Reapers LP/SC with the opponents. But hey, I have no problems just explaining this.  
** **Thing is, the LP and SC Reaper gets are actually an average between her opponents.** **During the 2nd chapter** **Abukara and Kyo had** **500LP 8SC and 2400LP 12SC respectably.**

 **(500+2400)/2=1450**

 **(8+12)/2=10**

 **Thus** **1450LP SC10 for Reaper.** **Same goes to the chase in the warehouse.** **And if you think about it, it's not really a disadvantage for her because Evil HEROES depend on Spell cards like Dark Fusion and Dark Calling.  
** **I guess, what I'm trying to say is that I actually put a lot of thought into what I write, if something seems random, it probably means that there is a bigger meaning to it. So, yeah, I leave traps like that behind for people to ponder on.**

 **Okay, so I said a lot, hope that cleared a few things up. I'll still write an A.N. at the end, I'm pretty sure very few of the ones that read this know of the physics behind signals or that many Japanese terms.**

 **Now, onto the story...**

* * *

Within a silent apartments dark room laid a figure, it's body covered snugly by a futon. It didn't move, nor show any signs of waking up soon.

Off to the side stood an old fashioned stool clock. Slowly its arrows turned until they stood at 8AM. And suddenly the rooms silence was pierced by a shrill alarm.

At first the figure didn't move but after a few minutes of none-stop ringing a groan escaped from under the covers. Slowly a hand extended and with more force than necessary slapped the alarm off. A sigh of relief escaped the figure as it slumped back. Unfortunately, that was a wrong thing to do. Hissing in pain, Akira sat up cradling her sides. Oh yeah, she was definitely feeling her yesterday's exploits now.

Not really having any other choice she stood, letting the cover drop to the ground, and went into the bathroom where she had a 1st aid kit stashed in a cupboard under a sink. The girl then took out a bruise cream and bandages. Turning to the mirror she lifted her white sleeping shirt and winced. Both of her sides where completely covered in purple, blue and yellow bruises practically glowing for the world to see, the bandages she put on yesterday night having loosened enough to hang around her middle.

Signing Akira proceeded through the painful process of wrapping on new ones. She really hoped the bruise cream Yanagi gave her would help, the old man was very insistent about her having it, going so far as listing all of its ingredients and their individual properties. While working on her injuries Akira thought about the night before.

After escaping the security, she hid inside Saiga's workplace, she very much doubted he lived there. There she had to wait about an hour before the man himself showed up. The instant Saiga stepped through the doorstep she noticed the change in his stance. No longer was he slumping as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. The general air of defeat, while still there, was definitely not as prominent. And probably the most telling - there was a fire in his eyes that was absent before. Akira hid a smile. Yes, she did the right thing by allowing the duel between Ushio and Yusei to continue. With the hand she drew, she could have ended the whole chase within seconds, but then, what would that achieve? The whole point of the duel was Saiga's change of heart. Without it, a lot of events would change. So no, instead of ending it there and then, Akira held back and just intervened when Ushio was about to activate that annoying trap of his. Hey, even if she said she would hold back, it didn't mean she couldn't help. The least she could do was take some pressure off of Yusei, the guy deserved that much after the crap he's been through so far.

Closing the cupboard doors, Akira leaned against the sink and inspected her work. While it wasn't perfect, the bandages should hold and protect the bruises from being agitated too much when she moves. Satisfied, she nodded and after turning off the lights left the bathroom. A yawn escaped her mouth as she entered the kitchen and started making her morning tea with breakfast.

Anyway, back to Saiga. The man was almost instantly upon her, bombarding her with various questions spamming from "What happened?" to "Are you okay?". She, of course, retold him most the events. Although, she kept quiet about the part where she jumped off the d-wheel, ignoring her injured sides and acting as if everything was fine. And by the looks he gave her, it was the right thing to do. A shudder ran down Akira's back, she really didn't want another man mothering her. One was enough. So, after explaining everything to Saiga they parted ways and went back home.

The microwave dinged, signalling that the breakfast was ready. Placing a plate with a sandwich and a cup of tea on a table in the living room, Akira dropped down onto her sofa, wincing when her injuries decided to remind her of themselves.

"Was it really necessary for you to jump of your bike yesterday?" a slightly hissing female voice came from the side.

Gulping down her food, Akira threw a glance where now stood an imposing dragon spirit.

'Not really, no.' She thought, but didn't voice it. Instead she went back to eating her food.

"It was either that or losing my d-wheel."

The dragon snorted.

"Yes, risking breaking your neck or losing a bike, can't imagine which one is worse." Night Void rolled her reptilian eyes sarcastically.

"Injuries heal, paint scratches don't." Akira shrugged, not really caring.

Night Void Dragon shook her head at such a dismissal of self-importance. "You're a weird one, human."

The girl simply continued eating and they lapsed into a moment of silence. The dragon was the first to break it.

"Did you have to refuse that other human? You've already done more than enough." The dark dragon questioned, it's piercing dark blue eyes peering curiously at the sitting shadow mark bearer.

For a moment Akira paused and tilted her head to the side contemplating. Yes, yesterday Saiga told her that her debt was more than paid and she didn't have to do anything more. She being who she is refused. Shrugging Akira told the dragon the same thing she told Saiga.

"I promised I would help and the whole thing isn't finished yet. We still need to get Fudo-san and show him the way to the place Saiga sent us coordinates to." She replied evenly and picked up her tea cup.

Night Void was silent for a moment before she speaking with a teasing tone.

"You just want to meet the male human, don't you?" Her lips pulled back revealing razor sharp teeth in an imitation of a smug grin.

Instead of replying, Akira picked up a beat up deck box and opening it retrieved one of the cards. A small flash of blue and moments later a small purple creature appeared hovering above it. It's big round green eyes blinked a few time before they landed on Akira and widened. Instantly it started happily jumping around, wiggling its small tail and chattering who knows what.

"Kuri kuri!" He chirped in greeting.

"Rainbow." Akira responded with a nod before pointing at the dragon leaning on the wall. Said dragon went rigid, her smile dropping instantly. Rainbow Kuriboh followed Akiras finger and jumped happily at the sight of Night Void Dragon. Without further ado, he launched himself at the dark dragon with a happy cry of "KURRRRIIIII!".

The dragon squawked and started waving around its clawed arms in an attempt to ward of the lively creature.

"Get away from me, you infernal pest! For the last time, I will not play with you!"

"KURRRII!"

All the while Akira happily continued drinking her tea, ignoring the chaos behind her. While Night Void was partially true, she did want to meet Yusei, who wouldn't want to meet the main character of the anime they liked, it was also to make sure the other was okay. She's pretty sure he still got electrocuted yesterday and with her in this world, anything might change. She was simply worried. Although, hell would probably freeze over faster than she would admit it out laud to the sarcastic dragon.

Over the rim of her cup she glanced at the duo of the struggling duel monster spirits. It was a funny sight, the big scary dragon of the night failing miserably to fend off a little ball of happy's approaches who just wanted to play. Her green eyes landed on Rainbow Kuriboh. He was the first spirit she succeeded in summoning… as well as part of her real deck. She had, after all, two different decks. One filled with fiends and monstrosities for Reaper to use and one for Akira, the real deck she used back in her home dimension. After finally succeeding in summoning a duel spirit, in order to train the ability, she had met with the ones in both of her decks. She started with small levels slowly increasing the difficulty until she had no problems calling our Night Void, not that she really needed too as the dragon, after the first success took it upon herself to give her heart attacks every time she decided she "had to make sure her human wasn't doing anything stupid". Akira didn't believe for a second that that was her only reason. She was pretty sure the dark dragon was simply lonely, but would never admit it to anyone. Why else would she keep showing up when Akira was alone?

Anyway, while training she found out that the fiend deck spirits were rather cold and indifferent to her, if a bit bloodthirsty. They just wanted to fight and were okay with her using their cards as long as she continued duelling. She didn't really try to change their opinion as she knew better than to try with those types. Her own deck on the other hand, well, turns out they're quite a lively bunch. The smaller spirits were rather mischievous and loved to cause chaos, pranking one another and playing all kinds of games. They would often help Akira around her apartment or just simply keep her company on more lonely days. Kuriboh was an excellent example of that, becoming an almost permanent resident of the human world. The little guy would often sit on Akira's shoulder and try to read one of the books she was reading at the time or ride around while the shadow did her business. Best part, he was more than happy to pester Night Void, more often than not driving the dark dragon up the wall.

The older and more powerful spirits were much calmer and mature than their younger counterparts. Akira had a sort of mutual respect with them. She respected them for their power and reliability, while they respected her for her duelling skills and personality. That didn't mean that they didn't know how to laugh, of course. Some of the pranks she pulled on Goodwin would have never been achieved without their help. Slowly Akira's face twisted into a frown. There just one thing about them, as a matter of fact, all of her personal decks duelling spirits, that confused and bothered the hell out of the dimension traveller. For some reason they were all rather protective of her. Even Rainbow Kuriboh. The little fiend almost bit off some guys finger that one time she went out into the city and the sod tried to slap her bottom. Fortunately, she was able to dismiss the spirit before anyone had seen him. What she was thankful for was that they were understanding. As powerful duel monster spirits they had their own pride and the fact that she was using another deck could be considered an insult to them. Akira wanted to use her real deck, she really did, but as Reaper if she started using it in her duels, she had little doubt Goodwin would easily track her down and then she would end up as a pawn in his game. No, she couldn't use her real deck, not until the middle of Fortune Cup at least. The whole point of the Reaper was to get her into the event, avoid being detected by the Dark Signers and Yliaster too soon and to hone her skills. There won't be much need for secrecy after the tournament, nor will there be much time for Goodwin to plan something in regards to her existence when the Dark Signers strike.

Before long Akira realised that she was sipping on an empty cup. Looking up she spotted a clock on the wall. It was already half past 8 meaning that it was time for her to go to work. She stood up, drawing the attention of the still struggling duel spirits, and went off to prepare. After all, it wouldn't do her pay-check any good if she was late.

* * *

At the top of the most prestigious part of the city a duel was just finished. Having cheered up Lua and accepted Luca's invitation to rest, Yusei followed the twins back into the building. As they were passing by an open closet a piece of paper caught the duellists attention. Curious he approached the doors and brought it out. It was a cutout from a newspaper dating a few months back. What had his eyes widening was the picture of a familiar black clad figure at its front. He quickly glanced up at the label of the article.

"Bus crash tragedy averted." Yusei read out loud drawing the twins attention. Lua blinked before his mouth formed a small "o" and he sprang out of his seat to run over to Yusei. He grinned when he saw the cutout.

"That's the Reaper!" Lua exclaimed with excitement clear in his voice.

Yusei frowned a little looking back at the picture that showed the mysterious duellist from the other night riding his d-wheel and duelling.

"We've met."

At his words Lua stopped and stared at Yusei in amazement.

"You must really be the good guy then."

Raising an eyebrow Yusei looked down at Lua in question. The younger boy grinned and ran over to stand up on the sofa. To the side Luca placed her head in hands and signed.

"Here he goes again."

But Lua ignored her and instead stroke a pose. Grinning, he started speaking in a "mysterious" tone.

"When the criminal run from security, he appears out of nowhere and challenges them into a duel! Then after finishing it he rides away and disappears like a ghost! Nobody knows anything about him! They say he has never lost a duel! And that he's an actual ghost! And that his d-wheel is act-" his speech was interrupted by his sister deciding to spare Yusei the headache.

"Reaper is a vigilante that appeared 6 months ago and targets criminals. The security has been running around trying to catch him ever since his debut." She finished while looking away from her brother.

Lua meanwhile jumped up and scowled at his twin.

"He's a hero I tell you, a hero! Why are those stupid security trying to catch him when all he does is good?" He crossed his arms angrily. Startled a little by the sudden outburst Yusei blinked before asking Lua.

"Why do you say that?"

Instead of Lua his sister answered.

"Because he kind of saved us." Seeing Yusei looking at her, she pointed at the cutout still held between his fingers "We were on that bus."

Now Yusei was getting more interested. He remembered how yesterday the black duellist had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, threw Ushio of the road and then helped him escape the Warehouse. His eyebrows knitted together into a frown. Despite the amazing athletic ability, the other seemed to possess Yusei knew for a fact that Reaper got himself injured while disabling Ushio's d-wheel. After all, he had seen the officer's elbows hit the duellist hard on the sides. He couldn't help but think that it was a bit his fault the other had to go through such lengths just to help him. Performing dangerous tricks, pulling out wires, taking heavy blows and eventually staying behind to get rid of his pursuers. Yusei himself got bit of a shock while riding out of the building, but it was probably nowhere near as bad as it would have been if the swarm of security he had seen running from the west side was any indication. So it came to no surprise that he was concerned about the fate of the person that hides behind that helmet.

Well, and curious. He had to admit he was very curious. Saiga was very skittish when talking about Reaper, so he didn't really have much to go by except the knowledge that the duellist was a vigilante and that the security apparently both hated and feared him. Taking a deep breath, he asked.

"What happened?"

Lua instantly brightened up and sat up straighter, rubbing his nose with a finger.

"Hehe, I'll tell you!"

 _It was a late evening when Lua and Luca were returning home on a bus from visiting their best friend Tenpei. Truthfully, they would have usually used their driver, but today their parents wanted them to study, thus it left them with no other choice but to sneak out to avoid spending their day alone in their big house. Both of them had chosen to wear baseball hats and some of their less expensive clothes to help them escape unnoticed._

 _Currently, the two twins sat in the back of the bus, bickering like only very close siblings could._

" _And then when you put Morphtronic Magnet together with-"_

" _Lua, I'm not interested!"_

" _But Luca, listen, you can-"_

" _Nah uh!"_

" _You just don't want to listen!"_

" _Yes!"_

 _Lua opened his mouth to retort when he saw through the window a blur speedily pass their bus._

" _Eh?" His sudden change of mood caught Luca's attention and she turned to look at her twin._

" _Lua?" She asked mildly confused._

 _Before they could say anything else, another blur, this one black, zoomed by. Lua gasped as he recognised just who was it that just drove past._

" _I-it's the Reaper!" He exclaimed, an excited grin spreading over his features. His sister on the other hand didn't share his happiness._

" _The vigilante?" She whispered with alarm in her voice._

 _They both leaned closer to take a better look through the window. And sure enough, the infamous dark duellist could be seen ridding besides the bus. As if sensing their eyes, the rider turned to look at the bus and the twins were both greeted by a green glowing visor. The contact didn't last long as the duellist turned back to the road ahead. But it was enough for the twins to know that they were noticed._

 _The boy twin was practically vibrating in his seat._

" _So cool!" He jumped up in his seat to press himself against the window. However, Luca quickly grabbed his arm and jerked him away._

" _Lua, sit down! It's dangerous!" Lua grumbled under his breath, but complied under his sisters pleading eyes._

 _Still, they watched the turbo duel through the window._

 _ **Crook 2800LP SC9**_

 _ **Reaper 2200LP SC7**_

 _Reaper only had one monster,_ _ **Elemental HERO Clayman (LV4 ATK/800 DEF/2000)**_ _, in defence position and 2 face down cards on the field. The escaping criminal on the other hand had two monster:_ _ **G.B. Hunter (LV4 ATK/1200 DEF/2000)**_ _and_ _ **Chaos-End Master (LV3 ATK/1500 DEF/1000)**_ _. Despite having an advantage in numbers the twins could see that the crook was sweating, panicking and wildly looking around, trying to find a way escape. Finally, his eyes landed on the bus the kids were on and a devious gleam entered his eyes. Inside, the twins shivered, whatever was about to happen, they knew they wouldn't like it, not one bit._

 _Swirling around, the criminal grinned sinisterly at his pursuer._

" _Hey Mister Hero! Can you both duel and save everyone at the same time?" He quickly leaned to the side and from inside his d-wheels compartment retreated a crowbar. Before anyone could react, the criminal cocked back his hand and with a powerful swing released the heave piece of metal at the bus window._

 _Within the bus people screamed as the crowbar hit the front window, shattering it. It was followed by a heavy thud and the bus suddenly jerking and speeding up. The occupants of the bus turned to look at the source at of the noise and paled at the sight before them._

 _The bus driver laid on the floor, unconscious and bleeding._

 _Moments later the bus started to weave from side to side making everyone release another scream. Cars on the road all dodged to sides to avoid its progressively more uncontrollable ride. The twins sat in the back shivering as they gripped each other's hands for comfort. This was not how they imagined their day would end._

 _The quickly rising panic was interrupted by the banging coming from one of the windows. Lua looked up from his position to see Reaper bring down a fist on a window frame._

" _Open the window." Came a commanding mechanical voice._

 _An old man who sat closest to the window hesitated for a moment before complying. The Reaper turned back to his d-wheel and pressed a few commands into the monitor. With a hiss the duel disk attached to the d-wheel came off and Reaper didn't waste any attaching it to his forearm. Nodding in satisfaction, he drove his bike up to the now open window. Without any hesitation the dark rider stood up on his d-wheels seat and gripping both sides of the window frame heaved himself inside of the vehicle, his steel covered feet firmly landing onto the floor._

 _Despite the current situation Lua couldn't help but observe the urban legend in wonder. This was probably the closest anyone has ever gotten to see the duellist. While the Reaper wasn't all that tall, even shorter than an average Asian male, but where the duellist lacked in height, he certainly made up in shear presence. It was just so… imposing, you couldn't help but think that the rider was a lot taller than anyone else. The boy twin snapped out of his thoughts when he felt Luca clench his hand tighter._

" _Luca?" He whispered worried when he saw how pale she has become. His sister didn't react, instead she stared blankly ahead, light shivers wracking her body from time to time. The worried twin was about to call out to Luca again when he heard her whispering._

" _Darkness… so much darkness, pain and loneliness… it's screaming… calling out to its friends… those who abandoned it in fear…" she continued to mumble bitten off sentences in a trance like state._

 _Lua gulped uncomfortably before quietly asking._

" _Who's lonely? Who's screaming?" Surprising, Luca seemed to react to his questions. She turned her wide unseeing eyes and looked straight at Lua._

" _The Shadow and its dragon." She answered. Lua was about to ask more when suddenly the bus weaved even more unsteadily. This seemed to snap out Luca out of her trance. Blinking a couple of times, the girl looked at her concerned brother._

" _Lua, what's the matter?" She asked confused._

 _The other twin opened his mouth to answer her, but instead chose not to._

" _Nothing." He mumbled frowning as he directed his attention back to the front._

 _During the interaction between brother and sister Reaper must have gotten to the front of the bus. Using his foot, the duellist pressed down onto the steering wheel to make sure it wouldn't move. He looked down at the driver and inspected the injury. While it wasn't bleeding heavily it was still a blow to the head, thus very dangerous. Reaper sighed and looked around. The public bus was full of people; problem was none of them could really take the drivers place. Most of them were elderly or high school students. He could even see children sitting in the back. He turned to the nearest teen._

" _Oi, take this guy." He pointed at the driver. Being so suddenly addressed the teenager jumped startled._

" _M-me?" He asked._

" _Yes you and be careful, he took a heavy blow to the head and probably has a concussion. Don't move him around too much and lay him down on the seats." The Reaper instructed the teen while he carefully removed the driver's feet from the pedals, all the while carefully directing the speeding bus to avoid a collision with other cars on the road._

 _The teen gulped and nodded before doing as instructed, others around him helping lay down the injured. Having extracted the driver, the duellist flopped down in his seat and took the controls. Instantly the bus steadied making everyone release breaths of relief. The bus steady, the dark rider turner his head to the side._

" _I'll need help." His mechanised voice surprised everyone present._

 _In the back, Lua's eyes widened. The Reaper needed help? This was a once in the life time opportunity! He almost jumped up, when he remembered his sister. But he couldn't just abandon her…_

 _Luca seemed to notice his predicament and shook her head._

" _You can go, I'll be fine." She said to her brother making his eyes widen._

 _Lua stared at his twin for a minute, mouth agape, before he grinned, hugged her in thanks and ran to the front. Stopping near the sitting duellist he grinned and pointed at himself with his thumb._

" _I'll help! What do you need me to do?" He shouted happily._

 _The Reaper didn't answer instantly. Instead, he raised one of his booted feet and slammed it into the shattered remains of the front window, making it completely fall off. Wind hit Lua's face as he wore an astonished look at the view it provided._

' _Wow, so this is how turbo duellists see the world!' he thought amazed._

 _Satisfied, the Reaper moved one hand, the other one keeping the steering wheel steadily in place, and unlocked his duel disk._

" _You'll be duelling."_

" _Eh?" Lua almost squeaked when a heavy device landed in his arms._

 _He looked down and couldn't contain the gasp that escaped his lips. The duel disk, simply put, was beautiful. He could tell it was custom made. While the frames shape reminded him of an older model it was not ordinary, with its blade like monster field area separated into two parts and folded to the sides. It's blade ends had a more hooked look to them, making them look more mean but also sleek. The main compartment that held the deck and graveyard had a circular screen on it that took up all of its surface. The device itself was obsidian black in colour with the edges painted a glowing toxic green. But what really held his attention were the monster zones once he activated the disk. Stretching all along the now connected blades surface was a picture of space. Stars, small and big, glowed brightly as the device came to life and green mixed with blue gas swirled lazily around them. The design was finished with transparent hexagons outlining the whole picture from both sides._

 _Lua glanced at the main part and sure enough, the once black screen was now glowing light green displaying the opponents field along with LP and SC belonging to both duellists. His reverie was interrupted by the duel disks owners voice._

" _Oi, can you do that?"_

 _The boy twin instantly squared his shoulders and puffed up his chest in pride._

" _Of course!" He yelled cheerfully and put the duel disk on his forearm… only for it to slip down and almost fall off because his arm was too thin._

 _For a moment there was silence as Lua and Reaper both stared at the device, before the dark duellist sighed and pointed at the dashboard._

" _Just place it on top there and take the cards."_

 _Embarrassed Lua did as told and took the cards into his hands. He shivered when he saw most of them in both fright and excitement._

' _Those are some scary looking duel monsters.' He thought as he stared at a particularly malicious looking fiend._

 _Reaper adjusted his hold on the steering wheel and turned to look straight ahead as they sped up._

" _Follow my instruction and you'll be fine." He tried to reassure the younger boy._

 _Lua for his part gulped and nodded._

 _It didn't take them long to catch up with the criminal who for his park looked up surprised but the surprised look quickly turned into an angry scowl when he saw who was driving._

" _I thought I got rid of you!" the crook shouted angry that his plan didn't work._

 _Reaper for his part shrugged._

" _Turns out I can do both." Lua laughed a little before quickly shutting up when the criminal growled at him._

" _Doesn't matter, I'll just do it the old fashioned way! My turn, draw!" Started the criminal._

 _ **Crook 2800LP SC10**_

 _ **Reaper/Lua 2200LP SC8**_

" _First, I tune my Level 4 G.B. Hunter into Level 3 Chaos-End Master!" The winged warrior sprang up and turned into 3 orange rings followed by the female monster who, upon entering the rings turned into 4 stars._

" _Synchro summon! Appear, Driven Daredevil!" A bright light briefly blinded Lua before a strong looking silver haired warrior jumped out posing his swords threateningly at them._

 _ **Driven Daredevil (LV7 ATK/2400 DEF/2100)**_

 _The boy's eyes widened when he saw the synchro monster._

" _Sugoi…" he breathed out amazed._

 _The criminal laughed._

" _It's more than amazing, boy! Now, Driven Daredevil, attack his pile of rock!"_

 _The monster complied, jumping at Elemental HERO Clayman. The monster tried to defend itself but it was quickly overpowered and slashed in half by the sword wielding warrior._

 _Lua covered his face as a gust of wind blew past them. He turned to Reaper for instruction but the other simply shook his head._

" _I end my turn by placing 1 card face down." The man ended as a hologram of a card briefly appeared to the side of his bike before vanishing as they rode._

" _Our turn. Draw." Lua hastily drew a new card._

 _ **Crook 2800LP SC11**_

 _ **Reaper/Lua 2200LP SC9**_

" _First, since I control no monsters, I special summon Evil HERO Infernal Prodigy in attack position." Lua placed the monster card and a tailed monster jumped out of a blue portal and started circling around bus._

 _ **Evil HERO Infernal Prodigy (LV2 ATK/300 DEF/600)**_

" _Then, since my opponent controls a monster, I can tribute summon Evil HERO Malicious Edge with only one tribute!" Reaper motioned for Lua to do so. The boy quickly read through the card names in his hand and found the intimidating monster from before. With a light shiver he placed the monster into the playing field. The tailed fiend disappeared and in its place stood a humanoid monster with long claws._

 _ **Evil HERO Malicious Edge (LV7 ATK/2600 DEF/1800)**_

 _Lua grinned when he saw the ATK the new monster possessed. Getting a little too excited he pointed at the opponent's warrior._

" _Cool! He's so awesome!" The boy started jumping around. "Now attack!"_

" _No, wait!" Reaper exclaimed but it was already too late as the monster moved and slashed its claws at the other monster. Driven Daredevils sword held for a second before it broke and the monsters claws savagely tore the other apart._

 _ **Crook 2600LP SC11**_

 _ **Reaper/Lua 2200LP SC9**_

 _Lua blinked not understanding why the dark duellist was worried._

" _But we just beat it, nothing bad happened." He asked._

 _The Reaper sighed and placed one hand over his helmeted face, if he could, he would be rubbing the bridge of his nose._

" _Because,"_

" _Monster effect activate!" the criminal shouted._

" _it has an effect." He finished._

 _Just then Malicious Edge exploded into shards, making Lua exclaim and look at the other duellist in confusion. Moments later, the thought to be destroyed warrior monster reformed on the opponent's side of the field._

" _When Driven Daredevil is attacked by a monster with a higher ATK it can't be destroyed by battle and the monster that it battled gets destroyed!" explained the criminal._

 _Lua looked down guiltily at the floor, sad that his excitement caused Reaper to lose his monster. Of to the side Reaper glanced at the suddenly silent boy. Turning back to the front he sighed._

" _It's fine."_

 _The boy twin looked up surprised before frowning._

" _But I lost your monster." He bit his bottom lip to keep himself from crying. Unexpectedly, he felt a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it slightly. Startled, he looked up and found Reaper now facing him fully._

" _A deck doesn't resolve just around one monster or combination. In every duel we must adapt and find new ways to defeat our opponents. Only then can we improve and learn from our mistakes. That and you have to trust your cards. Have some faith and they will reward you in the most unexpected way possible." Despite the duellist mechanical voice Lua could hear reassurance and confidence in his voice. The boy quickly whipped at his face and grinned at the other. The Reaper for his part nodded and turned back to driving._

" _Now, don't we have someone's ass to kick?"_

" _Yeah!" Lua exclaimed happy for the words of confidence._

" _Now, we place a card face down and end our turn. Then, because of Evil HERO Infernal Prodigies effect we draw a card." Reaper instructed and Lua was quick to follow._

" _Ha! That's it? I'll end this!" the criminal riding ahead of them shouted._

" _Draw!" He drew a card and looked down at it before grinning._

 _ **Crook 2600LP SC12**_

 _ **Reaper/Lua 2200LP SC10**_

" _I summon X-Saber Anu Piranha in attack position!" a red armour clad blond woman appeared on the field swinging her retractable sword._

 _ **X-Saber Anu Piranha (LV4 ATK/1800 DEF/1100)**_

" _Now, I attack you directly with Driven Daredevil, say good bye!" The man grinned as his monster moved to attack. Before he could however…_

" _Trap card activate, A Hero Emerges!" Shouted Reaper, Lua activated the card._

" _Now you will choose a card in our hand and if it's a monster we can special summon it."_

 _The crook gritted his teeth but chose nonetheless._

" _Fine, the leftmost one."_

 _Lua looked down at the cards in his hand, they only had 2 monsters among them. Elemental HERO Avian and Dark Hunter. Looking at the leftmost card the boy grinned, before showing the card to Reaper. Nodding the duellist gestured for Lua to speak, getting a wide-eyed expression from the boy. Gathering his courage, the boy spoke up._

" _T-the card you chose is Dark Hunter, so we get to summon him in defence position!" At first his voice trembled a little but as he spoke more, the braver he became._

 _A humanoid, crow like monster with a knife appeared on the field and crossed its arms in defensive position. It didn't live long, however, as Daredevils sword crashed down and destroyed him. But it did protect Lua's and Reaper's LP._

" _Tch, fine, X-Saber Anu Piranha, attack them directly!" A sword extended and pierced Reaper, who didn't show much reaction except a twitch, while Lua covered his face from the resulting shockwave._

 _ **Crook 2600LP SC12**_

 _ **Reaper/Lua 400LP SC9**_

" _With this I end my turn." The criminal finished before grinning smugly at the duo in the bus. "Say goodbye, because that's your last turn! Finally, the infamous Reaper will be defeated and I shall be the one to do it! Ha-!" He was cut off when he had to duck to avoid a crowbar, his very own, flying past where seconds ago was his head. It continued to fly ahead for a few more seconds before clattering to the ground harmlessly. Wide eyed, the man turned back to see Reaper retract his hand and place it back on the wheel, as if nothing happened. The boy twin too stood staring, mouth gapping, at the duellist. In fact, every occupant within the bus was staring at the Reaper disbelievingly._

" _You talk too much." Was his only explanation, making everyone look at him incredulously. He turned and looked at the stunned boy. "Oi, snap out of it."_

" _H-huh? Oh, right." Lua looked down at the deck with frown, if they didn't draw anything useful right now, they will lose. Before he could trouble himself more the seated duellist spoke up._

" _Didn't I tell you to have some faith?" Lua looked up. Not looking away from the road, Reaper jabbed his thumb at the d-wheel riding criminal up ahead. "He's annoying, let's end this?"_

 _Lua for his part looked at the escaping criminal. So much has happened this day and now he was technically part of what he could call a turbo duel with a duellist that was considered an urban legend on his side. Their opponent? A criminal who had no qualms with hurting an innocent and did something that Lua considered by far the worst…_

 _Lua shifted to look back at the rear of the bus where Luca sat gazing straight back at him and silently encouraging him._

… _he endangered his sister._

 _Resolve shining brightly in his eyes, he whipped around and looked where he guessed the Reapers eyes would be._

" _Let's do this!" the boy twin shouted determined and placed a hand over the deck. Reaper nodded in approval and stretched out his hand to place it atop of Lua's._

" _O_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **t**_ _u_ _ **r**_ _n,_ _ **D**_ _R_ _ **A**_ _W_ _ **!**_ _" they shouted in unison and drew their last card. Opening his closed eyes, Lua carefully peered at the card they drew. His eyes widened when he was it and he showed it to the other duellist._

" _Told you they would reward you." Reaper replied with a snort making the younger boy grin._

 _ **Crook 2600LP SC12**_

 _ **Reaper/Lua 400LP SC10**_

" _First, since we have more than 2 speed counter we can activate a Speed Spell-A Hero Lives." Reaper said as a card rose from the ground._

" _By paying half of our LP we can special summon 1 LV4 or lower 'Elemental HERO' monster from our deck."_

 _ **Crook 2600LP SC12**_

 _ **Reaper/Lua 200LP SC10**_

" _Come, Elemental HERO Burstinatrix!" With burst of fire a red clad long haired woman appeared in the middle of a field._

 _ **Elemental HERO Burstinatrix (LV3 ATK/1200 DEF/800)**_

 _Reaper pointed at 2 cards in Lua's hand and nodded for the boy to continue._

" _Oh yeah! We then play, Speed Spell – Dark Fusion and use Elemental HERO Burstinatrix and from hand Elemental HERO Avian (LV3 ATK/1000 DEF/1000) to fusion summon…" the boy trailed off._

" _Evil HERO Inferno Wing!" The Reaper finished._

 _The 2 heroes disappeared into a spinning dark vortex before the whole field exploded in fire. From the burning inferno a winged beast with enormous claws emerged and smirked at the criminal, tilting its masked head mockingly._

 _ **Evil HERO Inferno Wing (LV6 ATK/2100 DEF/1200)**_

 _The rider blinked and then burst out laughing._

" _All that show and this thing only has 2100 ATK?! Are you kidding or something?" the criminal laughed long and hard._

 _Both of the duellist within the bus ignored him. Reaper turned and motioned for Lua to activate the card that would let them use their thumb card. Lua nodded, understanding the command._

" _Trap card activate, Torrential Tribute! Since we just summoned a monster we can now destroy all monster on the field."_

" _What?!"_

 _Water started to gather in the middle of the road and with a roar exploded in all directions, leaving the field completely bare of any monsters. Coughing the man burst out of the smoke followed by a bus. He turned and glared at the duo in the front._

" _And good that will do you? You just killed off your own monster!" the criminal shouted at them confused._

" _Everything. Shounen-kun!" Reaper said. Lua nodded and placed their last card, the card that they drew and the one that will end this duel._

" _We have more than 4 SC, so then, Speed Spell – Dark Calling, activate!" shouted the boy._

 _Dark clouds started gathering on their side of the field._

" _By banishing one Evil HERO Malicious Edge and one Evil HERO Inferno Wing from the graveyard we can fusion summon Evil HERO Malicious Fiend!" Reaper took over from Lua to explain._

 _From within the dark miasma emerged a fiend with enormous grey wings. Its head bore a helmet that resembled a raptor with long steal horn going down its back. It looked beyond evil however the most noticeable part of it was a pair of 6 long claws which the monster grinned and pointed at the now pale criminal._

 _ **Evil HERO Malicious Fiend (LV8 ATK/3500 DEF/2100)**_

 _Lua stared wide eyed at the monster that they just summoned, hardly believing that he helped create such a powerful creature._

" _Sugoi, sugoi, sugoi! It looks so cool!" The boy snapped out and started jumping around happily._

" _Oi." A mechanical voice interrupted his dance. Turning around he saw Reaper pointing at the front._

" _We still need to finish."_

" _Right, sorry." The boy grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head._

 _The dark rider just sighed before nodding his head at front._

" _Come on, you're part of this duel, you get to finish it together." Said Reaper making Lua beam at him._

 _Both of them pointed their fingers at the panicking crook. One calmly, the other – grinning excitedly._

" _ **A**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _a_ _ **c**_ _k,_ _ **E**_ _v_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **H**_ _E_ _ **R**_ _O_ _ **M**_ _a_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **c**_ _i_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **s**_ _F_ _ **i**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _d,_ _ **D**_ _A_ _ **R**_ _K_ _ **N**_ _E_ _ **S**_ _S_ _ **C**_ _L_ _ **E**_ _A_ _ **V**_ _E_ _ **!**_ _" Their voices prompted the grinning monster to shoot forward. Flying, it raised one of its clawed hands, which was now covered in dark energy, and with a thrust it delivered a direct attack to the d-wheeler._

 _ **Crook 0LP SC0**_

 _Steam exploded in the man's face and he went down with a scream. The motorcycle overturned and skidded to a halt at the side of the road._

 _ **Winner: Reaper/Lua 200LP SC10**_

"And that's what happened." Finished a very proud Lua as he jumped off of the sofa and posed with a victory sigh.

There was a long silence after the end of the tale.

Alright, when Yusei asked what happened, he did not expect to be regaled an epic tale of battle and heroism. Although, he was a bit sceptical at first, the second Lua mentioned Reaper throwing a crowbar at the criminal for talking too much he… sort of believed it. Somehow, it just sounded like something the duellist would do, especially after the chaos caused by him when annoyed and the exact same words that followed it. Still…

Yusei looked out the window at the grand view of the Neo Domino.

He couldn't deny that what Reaper did was amazing. And from what he understood, the dark rider did similar things on regular basis. The advice he gave Lua was a very good one too, although, the twin seems to have forgotten all about it, if their duel today was any indication. The raven-haired duellist wondered if he would ever get to see Reaper again. He wanted to find out just what drove such a person into becoming a vigilante and if possible get to know him better. A person that told others to trust their cards couldn't be bad.

His musing was interrupted by Luca speaking up.

"You didn't tell him the best part." She said in a singsong.

Yusei turned to Lua for answers.

The boy's cheeks darkened as he slumped and looked down at his feet in embarrassment.

"Well…"

 _The bus finally stopped on a mostly empty bridges side and Reaper exited the vehicle. Promptly, the dark rider tuned on his heels and headed back to the side of the road where laid a groaning crook that was defeated mere minutes prior._

 _Seeing the Reaper approaching the criminal tried to stand and make a run for it but his d-wheel prevented him from moving anywhere, having fallen over onto his legs. It dawned to him that he wouldn't be escaping on his own, so he started doing the only thing he could at the time. He started begging._

 _"Please, I-I'll do anything, get you anything, money, power, women, just let go of me!"_

 _Reaper paused in his stride and a spark of hope ignited inside the crook. It was however crushed by Reapers snort._

 _"Sweet dreams."_

 _The last thing the criminal saw was a steal coated boot heading for his head, before everything turned black._

 _Lua sighed in relief as he placed the duel disk on his forearm. Finally, everything was over. People around him were hurrying to get off the bus. Springing from his place, the boy turned around and after pushing through the exiting crowd finally made it to the back of the bus._

 _"Luca!" He cried out worried for his twin._

 _"I'm over here, no need to shout." Came a voice he very much wanted to here._

 _Not wasting any time, the boy launched himself and anguished his twin into a tight hug, startling her by the sudden show of affection._

 _"L-Lua?!" Luca exclaimed surprised._

 _"Luca! You're okay!" He released the girl and smiled broadly at her._

 _Luca huffed but Lua could see a smile playing at the corners of her lips._

 _"Of course I would be okay, all I did was sit in the back. Unlike you." She huffed._

 _"Hey! I saved everyone!" The boy puffed up in pride. His words had Luca rolling her eyes._

 _"Correction, Reaper saved everyone, you just did what he told you to." She looked at her twin with a deadpan making the boy stumble._

 _Lua opened his mouth to argue but then shook his head and instead grabbed Luca's hand and started dragging her towards the exit._

 _"Come on, I want you to meet someone!"_

 _"Lua, let go! I can walk myself!" Shouted Luca while adjusting the cap she wore to hide her face better._

 _As they left they passed the still unconscious driver and the student who was entrusted with the injured man's safety. The student was currently applying some balm Reaper gave him before exiting to the wound. Seeing them the teen smiled and gestured for them to go. Leaving the bus, the twins found people milling around._

 _Some were standing in the front, taking pictures or calling home. Others were staring at something._

 _Curious, the kids followed their stares. Their eyes landed on a black d-wheel that was currently standing attached to the bus under the window through which Reaper had initially entered._

 _"Uwaa, that's Reaper's d-wheel!" Lua breathed out amazed._

 _Luca for her part just nodded, not really interested. Although, she noted that the machine seemed to have some kind of extendable attachment that helped it cling to other surfaces._

 _Finally, Lua seemed to snap out of his star-struck trance. With a shake of his head he grabbed ahold of his sister's hand again._

 _"Never mind, let's go before it's too late."_

 _After some pushing, the twins broke through the crowd and reached the back._

 _Lua looked around and grinned when he spotted the target of his search of to the side of the road._

 _"Reaper!" He shouted, starting to run towards the duellist._

 _Upon hearing his name called, the duellist looked up from his crouching position over the criminal. His gaze landed on the approaching twins and he stood up._

 _Seeing this Luca's eyes widened. Suddenly, she ground her feet into the ground making Lua stumble and almost fall over. Confused, he looked up at Luca._

 _The girl quickly leaned in and started whispering hurriedly in her brother's ear._

 _"Lua, this is a bad idea! He's a wanted vigilante and dangerous!"_

 _But the boy just shook his head._

 _"Don't worry, he's a good guy! After all, he helped us! Reaper won't do anything bad to you!" he didn't listen to any more protest and started dragging the girl again._

 _When they reached Reaper, who was patiently waiting for them with his head tilted slightly to the side, Lua looked up at the duellist with a grin._

 _"Reaper, meet my sister!" He pushed Luca in front of him. The girl, slightly startled, almost ran into the dark duellist._

 _She looked up and gulped. Up close, the glowing green visor made a much more intimidating sight, especially since it was now staring right at her._

 _"H-hello." She stammered lightly and glanced at the unconscious criminal laying behind Reaper. A shiver ran down Luca's back._

 _The duellist continued looking at the young girl silently. Then Reaper slowly bend down into a crouch. Luca, slightly frightened by the dark feelings the other gave off, closed her eyes._

 _For a moment nothing happened. Suddenly, she felt something small but powerful hit her forehead through the hat. Hands shooting up to rub the spot, she stared at the dark duellist with surprise._

 _The other had his hand held up in a flicking motion._

 _"What are you scared for? I didn't even do anything to you." A modulated voice asked._

 _Luca's eyes widened and embarrassed she looked down at the ground. Indeed, the duellist didn't do anything bad to her. If anything he helped them and kept them safe. And she was judging him by the feeling his cards gave off._

 _But now that Reaper was so close, Luna could dissect the feelings better. The darkness, indifference and blood thirst came from Reapers deck that Lua currently held, the emotions that she first associated with the duellist. What puzzled the girl was that she felt another set of emotions coming from the duellist. These were much different from the others. There was playfulness and sadness, loneliness and pain, pride and confidence, but above all others one emotion shone the brightest. Kindness. There was an astonishing amount of warmth radiating from the duellist, even if it had a slightly frosty and reluctant undertone._

 _Blinking, the girl retuned from her reverie and ducked her head when she noticed that Reaper was still staring at her._

 _"Sorry." She said to the duellist._

 _The dark rider shrugged his shoulders._

 _"It's fine." Then he leaned closer. "Ojou-chan, instead, you should be proud of your brother, he did duel for you, you know?" He whispered so that only she could hear._

 _Luca's eyes widened and she stared up at the duellist who moved to stand up before her eyes fell on her brother. Lua seemed to be oblivious to the conversation that had transpired and was just standing there grinning with his arms folded behind his head._

 _The twin girl smiled slightly._

 _'Lua…'_

 _The boy in question chose that moment to spring up on Reaper._

 _"That was so awesome! He was like 'what?!' and we were like 'darkness cleave!' And then boom! He went down and we won! We got the criminal and saved everyone! We're heroes!" He jumped at the last part._

 _This was apparently a wrong thing to say. Reaper twitched and then shifted uncomfortably in his place._

 _"Not a hero." He mumbled. Even with a voice modulator Luca could tell that the duellist did not like being compared to heroes._

 _Lua on the other hand…_

 _"Whaaat?!" The boy shouted in disbelief. "But you are! You save people, you catch the bad guys and have a cool disequise!"_

 _"Disguise." Luna corrected him making Lua grimace._

 _"Heroes are selfless." Reaper told him bluntly._

 _"But aren't you-" he threw up his hands in the air. It was at that moment that everything went wrong._

 _Lua blinked when he felt that something was not right. He looked around. Luna was standing with her head in her hands. Reaper was looking at something in the sky. The crook was… well, he was still unconscious._

 _Slowly it dawned to him. His arm felt a lot lighter than it should be._

 _Quickly whipping around he spotted Reapers duel disk, the one that used to be attached onto his arm, fly over the bridge railings._

 _"NonononononoNO!" Lua dove for the railing._

 _Panicked he looked down at the road bellow and a sigh of relief escaped his lips when he spotted it laying on the ground bellow still intact. Unfortunately, at that moment a car chose to drive right over the spot where the duel disk laid._

 _CRACK_

 _Lua opened his eyes and carefully took a peek. He winced. The device now lay broken, it's shining blades separated into 4 parts and screen shattered. Turning around he released a nervous laugh._

 _"Ha…ha…u-um, oops?" He stammered out._

 _The others just stared at him, Luca with exasperation and Reaper… well, he wasn't sure but it couldn't be anything good._

 _"Way to ruin everything, Lua." Luca commented dryly._

 _Before anyone could do anything else the sound of sirens pierced the air. From one side of the bridge a multitude of lights were quickly approaching their location. All those present knew what they meant._

 _The sector security was finally here._

 _Reaper was the first to react. He quickly lunged for a small square object laying on the road, which Lua would later realise was a deck holder that fell out of the duel disk during its brief flight, and whirled around to fast walk to his d-wheel. People parted to let the duellist through and he sat himself on the vehicle._

 _The sound of an engine roaring back to life snapped Lua out._

 _"Hey, wait!" He shouted before running up to the rider._

 _Reaper has already detached the d-wheel from the bus and was about drive away. He paused and turned to Lua._

 _Lua panted for a bit before straightening up and looking at the duellist seriously._

 _"Thanks, for helping us." He said before looking down and more sheepishly adding. "And sorry about the duel disk."_

 _The other was silent for a moment before a mechanical sigh sounded._

 _"It's fine and it was my fault to begin with." Reaper said._

 _Not expecting his last words, Lua looked up._

 _"Wha-"_

 _But he was cut off by the other suddenly accelerating and riding away._

A long silence followed the tales end. It was finally broken by Yusei.

"You broke his duel disk." He stated plainly.

"Custom made duel disk." Added Luca.

Lua rubbed his arm and looked away with dark cheeks.

"It was an accident."

Silence once again filled the room. Suddenly Lua gasped. He whirled around to face Yusei.

"I know! Yusei, you said you met him?"

Yusei, not really understanding where the boy was going with this, just nodded.

"Think you could meet him again?" The twin asked.

The duellist paused. While he didn't think he would, he was pretty sure Saiga knew how to at least contact Reaper. And he could find the man through the Bootleg again. So, yes, technically there was a possibility of Yusei meeting the dark rider again.

"Yes." He nodded, although with a bit more hesitation.

Lua grinned, rushed to the open closet and started rifling through boxes, opening and closing the lids one after another.

"Where is it, where is it, aha!" The boy exclaimed in triumph as he brought out a big box. Stumbling a little he ran over to the table and placed it on top. Upon seeing the box Lucas eyes widened.

"Lua, you're not going to-"

"Sure am!"

Curious about the box's contents, Yusei approached the table.

"What's in there?"

Instead of answering Lua opened the box to reveal a black damaged duel disk. Carefully Yusei picked up one of its broken blades and brought it up to the sun. Sure enough, once the rays of light landed on the blade it lit up with a mixture of green, blue and star pattern.

'Reaper's duel disk.' He realised.

Drawing back the piece he took a closer look. Even damaged and unused for over a month it still retained a shine. Some parts that were sticking out had scratches that weren't made by the cars riding over it. Upon closer inspection Yusei found that other parts too had small scratches that could only be made by hand and a sharp metal tool… like a screwdriver. The duellist blinked when he realised something. This wasn't just a custom made duel disk. It was handmade, probably by Reaper himself.

"We gathered all the pieces." Lua's voice made Yusei look away from the blade.

The boy was now scratching the back of his head.

"So, I though, since you met Reaper you could give him back his duel disk!" The twin ended his reasoning.

Yusei though for a moment. He could do that. Especially, after what the other had done for him. And…

He glanced at the box filled with parts.

He was planning to customise the twins duel disks to better fit them, so, he could also fix Reaper's as a thank you for the help.

Looking up, Yusei nodded at the twins.

"I'll do it."

The boy grinned and jumped up with his fist held high in the air.

"Alright!"

* * *

 **LATER THAT EVENING**

Exiting the lift, Yusei boarded his d-wheel and, after making sure he was alone, rode away from the Tops.

After a few minutes of peaceful driving, a security d-wheel suddenly pulled up in front of him. Looking up, Yusei was met with a grinning Ushio's face. Although, the blue eyed duellist noted that the officer was riding a different one.

"Been waiting for you, scum!" Ushio shouted.

Both of the d-wheelers drew to a stop.

Ushio grinned and opened his mouth to speak.

"Now, how about you-" Suddenly, the man's eyes widened and he ducked just in time to avoid a flying trash cans lid. The lid flew and crashed against a buildings wall before clattering on the ground.

There was a moment of silence as both the officer and the Satellite stared at the lid. Slowly both of them turned to look at the direction the metal lip came from. One turned red in the face, while the other blinked in surprise at who they found.

Standing there, in between the buildings, was Reaper with his body leaning forward and arm extended in a throwing motion. Yusei spotted the duellists black d-wheel standing behind him.

Finally, the dark rider straightened, folded his arms and leaned onto his bike.

"Missed." Reaper sighed in disappointed.

This seemed to snap out the officer. Ushio whipped around and glared at him.

"You bastard! What are you doing here and why did you just throw that at me?!" The officer shouted at the dark rider.

Reaper responded by lifting one finger.

"One, waiting." He said while looking directly at Yusei, whose eyes widened, then he lifted another finger and turned back to Ushio. "Two, because."

Ushio sputtered for a moment.

"Y-You can't just go around throwing things at people for no reason!"

For a moment the duellist seemed to mull over his words before he nodded.

"You can't throw things at people." He finally agreed.

Both Ushio and Yusei just stared at the dark rider blankly. Then Ushio asked what was on both of their minds.

"Then why did you just throw that at me?"

The response was instantaneous.

"Because you're not people." Reaper answered as if that made all the sense in the world.

"What?" Ushio asked confused.

Lifting one of his hands Reaper pointed at Yusei.

"People." Then he moved his finger to point at Ushio. "Idiots."

A silence followed his explanation. Slowly Yusei raised an eyebrow as he finally understood at what the other duellist was implying. He just basically admitted that it was okay to throw things at all those he considered annoying, stupid or idiots. Namely, people, or idiots as the other called them, like Ushio.

Sitting on this d-wheel Ushio trembled with rage.

"First, you trashed my d-wheel, then you caused me to go into probation and now THIS!" He glared at Reaper with a mad glint in his eyes. "I don't care what the others say! You're dead, you hear me, dead when I'm through with you!"

Before the officer could make a move to strangle the dark rider light flooded the dark rode, effectively blinding everyone in it.

* * *

Reaper was, to put it simply, bored. She had been waiting for 2 hours doing nothing but sit one her bike. And doing nothing was never a strong point of hers. So when Yusei finally decided to leave, she almost started dancing in happiness. Finally, progress.

She wasted no time in following the guy, knowing that a certain officer should be showing up any minute. And as in anime, he did. Unfortunately for her, Reaper didn't count on his smug voice grating on her nerves so much. It didn't help that she was sporting a headache.

So, deciding that the officer needed to be taken down a peg, she chucked at him the nearest thing that she could grab, which happen to be a trash bin lid. Besides, call her dramatic, but she needed an entrance.

It worked, at least until the officer snapped and started making death threats.

Fortunately, it was at this moment that a certain clown decided to show up, startling and blinding the other duellists.

"W-what?!" exclaimed Ushio.

Getting out of his car, Jaeger approached the trio. His eyes landed on the officer.

"Inspector-kun, perhaps you could leave this man to the Public Security Maintenance Bureau for a while?" he all but ordered.

Ushio narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"Public Security Maintenance Bureau?"

Smirking, the clown took out a badge.

"I am Jaeger, Head of Special Investigations." He nodded in greeting before looking back at the officer, laughing like an imp. "You would be… Ushio-kun, correct?"

"Head of Special Investigations?!" Ushio shouted surprised.

Jaeger however, ignored the officer and turned to Yusei.

"I have come here with a message from Director Rex Goodwin to this man." Said the clown.

Instantly, Ushio was on alert. Pointing his finger at Yusei he shouted.

"But, he stole that d-wheel from the Security Storage Warehouse…"

"Ushio-kun," the officer shut up upon hearing the sudden change of tone in Jaegers voice. "I would believe it's in your best interest not to disobey the director's orders."

Seeing that the man would be silent his eyes once again fell on Yusei.

Yusei on the other hand was alert.

"What does the director want with me?" He asked cautiously.

Jaeger smirked and approached the duellist.

"Here you are." He took out a white envelope and handed it to Yusei.

Yusei released a gasp and glared at the imp when he saw a photo of his friends on top of the envelope.

"Please take part in the Duel of Fortune Cup." The clown bowed. "Should you refuse, the four in the picture will experience pain beyond your wildest imagination. Understood?"

Jaeger turned around to leave. He paused when he spotted Reaper leaning on a d-wheel.

"Ah, Reaper-san, I did not expect to see you here today." His words drew the others attention to them.

Reaper didn't move an inch, choosing to instead remain silent and stare at the imp. Her behaviour seemed to confuse the other duellists and amuse Jaeger.

"I do hope to see you at the tournament too. It would be sad if so many officers would suddenly have to work overtime trying to catch you." The imp threatened before proceeding to the car, laughing all the way.

Reaper watched as the clown drow away. She did not like Jaeger, not one bit. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do about him, especially since later in the series he become more tolerable and actually helps.

Sighing she turned back to the scene. Yusei was standing there gripping the crumbled envelope and glaring at the leaving car. Ushio, on the other hand, was staring at the ground and gritting his teeth.

Deciding enough was enough she called out.

"Fudo-san," Upon hearing her mechanical voice call his name Yusei turned to look at her. "Please follow me."

He frowned.

"Where to?"

"A mutual friends place." She answered.

For a moment he seemed confused before a light of understanding entered his eyes and he nodded. Moving around, Reaper sat down on her d-wheel and turned on the engine. The sound was enough to snap Ushio out of his revere.

Seeing them about to leave the officers eyes widened before narrowing into a glare. He pointed his finger at Reaper.

"Oi, bastard vigilante, he may have forbidden me from touching the Satellite scum, but he said nothing about you!" He powered up his engine and prepared to activate Speed World. "You're going down, trash!"

Behind her she could see Yusei tense up. Reaper, on the other hand, sighed. She had hopped she could use it later but with how persistent the idiot was it looks like she'll have to use that now.

Reaper turned around so she could face the officer fully.

"Yami no game." She said the magic words.

The reaction was inattentions. First, Ushio became pale as a ghost. Then, he started sweating and trembling. His pupils dilated as memories came rushing to the front. Finally, he started muttering to himself.

"No… no more… I don't want any more money… no…"

Experimentally, she raised her hand and snapped her fingers a few times. There was no reaction from the officer. Then she clapped her hands a few times. Still no reaction. Seeing her plan has worked she nodded in satisfaction.

Yusei stared at Ushio uncomfortably, having never seen the officer so… out of it.

"Is he going to be okay?" He asked Reaper.

She thought for a moment before shrugging.

"Probably, in a few hours or so."

The disguised girl then turned back to the road ahead and motioned to Yusei with her hand.

"Let's go." She said before quickly accelerating and driving away.

Nodding the other followed. The ride from then was a silent one. One was lost deep in thought, thinking about the tournament he was being forced into and worried for the safety of his friends back in Satellite. The other was thinking about her plans from this point on.

It didn't take them long to reach the place Saiga wanted Yusei at and they were both greeted by the man himself standing outside of the garage doors.

"Took you long enough." Saiga spoke up as they turned off their bike engines.

Reaper jumped off of her d-wheel and approached the man.

"Was delayed." Shrugging she went past the man and lifted the doors before entering and disappearing inside.

Sighing the man pinched the bridge of his nose and shifted to look at the other youth.

"Please explain, because apparently that person is not in the mood."

Yusei took off his helmet and regarded the man with a raised eyebrow. Not finding any reason why not, the duellist explained to Saiga what happened after he escaped the warehouse, how he met with the twins and finally about the confrontation and threats in the alley.

Saiga just stared at him for a moment before closing his eyes and rubbing his temple.

"I swear, you two are by far the worst trouble magnets I've ever known." He mumbled before gesturing for Yusei to drag his d-wheel inside.

"Hope you hold here until the Fortune Cup." He went up to the wall and turned on the lights. "Not very well furnished for a condominium, but it has all the bare minimums." Walking up he added. "Just ask if you need anything."

Yusei sighed and shook his head.

"This is fine. Sorry about this."

Saiga frowned a bit.

"I'm the one who should be apologizing." Seeing he had the others attention he continued. "The marker. That quick-fix was just that. It seems your whereabouts are going straight to Security."

Closing his eyes Yusei answered.

"Even if they are, I don't care."

The older man thought for a moment before his eyes lit up.

"That person, on the other hand, might have something." He finished before walking deeper into the apartment. Blinking Yusei followed, curious what the other had meant.

Going through the hall they finally entered what seemed to be a kitchen area. It was scarcely furnished, only having a table and one chair to eat on, but that wasn't what drew their attention. It was the figure that was currently half-sitting half-laying face first on the table. Hearing them approach Reaper turned her helmeted head to look at them. She didn't say a word though.

Saiga raised an eyebrow at her unusual behaviour, having never seen the girl so still and silent.

"Okay, spill, what the heck is wrong with you? You usually can't stand still in one place without at least doing something." He asked her bluntly.

For a moment she stared before she turned away from them and putting her head back in its previous position released a groan.

"Headache." Came her modulated voice.

Both men stared at her for a moment before Saiga snorted and walked over to stand in front of the sink. Taking out a glass he filled it with cold water and placed it in front of the downed duellist. Yusei walked farther into the kitchen and crossing his arms leaned on the wall, carefully observing everything.

The disguised girl slowly sat up in her seat. She placed a hand on the side of her helmet and pressed a button there. Then, with a slight jerk on the lower portion of the protection the bottom part came off allowing for the other occupants to see the bottom part of her face, just until a little above her lips.

'Young.' Yusei thought, frowning when he remembered the dark riders smaller than average height. 'Younger than 20.'

Taking the offered glass, she drank most of it, before placing it back. The girl then put the piece of helmet back on and sighed in relief.

"Thanks."

Her eyes landed on Yusei.

"Fudo-san, how are you?" She asked promptly. The other, not expecting being addressed so formally blinked and looked questionably at her. Seeing his confusion, she elaborated. "The Security at the entrance, they had electric batons."

Frowning the young man answered.

"I'm fine, thanks." He looked at where he guessed the others eyes were. "What about you? You were hit pretty hard."

Reaper tilted her head to the side in though before shrugging.

"Fine."

Saiga on the other hand…

"Oi, what's this about getting hit?" The man narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Reaper.

While Yusei turned at the man bewildered, having thought Saiga already knew, Reaper tried to act nonchalant about it. Throwing her legs onto the table she crossed her arm over her chest and leaned back with her chair.

"Nothing."

However, Saiga didn't buy it.

"Lift your shirt up." He all but demanded.

"Eh?" Reaper almost fell off her seat whipping around. Saiga crossed his arms.

"If it's really nothing there shouldn't be any problems, right?"

Now Reaper was in a bit of trouble. While she normally wouldn't care about the order, this was Saiga they were talking about and she could see it in his eyes that he wouldn't take no for an answer. So she thought of alternative ways to get out of the sticky situation.

'Distraction time.'

Leaning further back the girl regarded Saiga.

"Didn't you want to ask me something?" She spoke suddenly.

Saiga blinked for a moment, but then spoke.

"Ah, wanted to ask if you knew how to permanently disable a marker?" He turned to stare at the seated girl. In response Reaper tilted her head innocently.

"And don't to act like you have no idea what I'm talking about." The man snorted. "I know for a fact that it takes more than just talent to make something like that Speed World of yours."

Reaper stared for a bit. The kitchens occupants jumped when she absurdly sprang up and left the room. Saiga turned to look at Yusei, who too was blinking away his confusion, before both of them followed the dark rider.

They found her outside, taking out a laptop from her d-wheel. Where she managed to store it they had no idea. Walking back inside she flopped down onto the sofa and opened the screen. After a few minutes of typing Reaper paused. Clasping her hands in a prayer motion she started muttering to herself.

Curious both men moved so they could peak at the screen. They found about dozens of files opened. Some had codes running through them, others showed devices blueprints. While Saiga stared in confusion, Yusei recognised some of them.

'Those are the marking machines and tracker blueprints.' He was brought out of his thoughts by Reaper suddenly speaking up.

"Saiga-san, do you have a jammer with you?"

Saiga's eyebrows creased in confusion, but nodding he took out the device and handed it to Reaper's expectant hand.

Taking the device, the girl rolled it around in her hands for a bit, brought it closer to her face to inspect and then nodded.

"Two days." She said making others blink at her. Turning away from her computer she faced them. "I will have a permanent solution in two days."

Frowning a bit Saiga asked.

"Not that I'm doubting you or anything, but how will you do it?"

Reaper turned her laptop for him to see and pointed at an ever-changing code. Both men looked curiously at it.

"This is what a marker transmission looks like." She began. "You'll notice that it keeps changing." Extending her arm, she pressed a key on the keyboard. Immediately a part of code froze and stopped changing. "This is what happens when you use a jammer."

"It freezes the transmitted part." Yusei injected.

Nodding Reaper continued.

"But after 48 hours," one number in the frozen code changed and instantly the code started changing again. "the code is renewed and can transmit again."

Saiga rubbed his chin with his hand.

"Then how do you stop it if it keeps renewing itself?" He asked.

The girl shrugged her shoulder.

"Simple, you don't." They stared at her. Reaper huffed and elaborated. "You leave the transmission alone it's too much to bother with, instead target something else like…"

Yusei's eyes widened as it dawned to him.

"The address." They both finished at the same time. Blinking they turned to one another.

'Well, that was unexpected.' Though Reaper.

A thoughtful frown appeared on Yusei's face.

"But wouldn't changing the frequency be easier?"

"It would be, but anyone could pick up on the signal then."

"Ah, so by grounding it to a specific beacon…"

"We are ensuring that it transmits there and only there."

Saiga watched from the side the two of them throw around complicated terms and theories like child's play. It was… mystifying. He could honestly admit that he was astonished. While the man knew that the disguise wearing girl was smart, that with her nonchalantly admitting to have hacked into Security servers and the creation of the miracle that was her modified Speed World, he didn't expect her to be **this** smart. Nor did he knew that she could speak so much. Who knew? It just served to show just how little he actually knew about her.

Saiga had to wonder what more was there to the calm but chaotic young woman named Hoshikoka Akira.

Suddenly, music filled the air, successfully drawing everyone's attention to outside.

 _Hikari sasu hou e miagete_ _chikatta  
_ _(We looked up in the direction that the light shone towards and vowed)_

 _Bokura dake_ _no mirai, kizuite iku  
_ _(We are building our own future)_

 _Yoake sura tooku mabushiku sasaru  
_ _(It pierces brilliantly through as far as dawn)_

 _Mezamete yuku IN THE WONDERLAND._ _  
_ _(Wake up_ _IN THE WONDERLAND_ _.)_

Springing up Reaper ran over to her d-wheel. After some browsing she retrieved a beat up silver phone, model of which the other two didn't recognise.

Touching the phones screen, Reaper brought it up to her ear.

"Moshi moshi." She answered in a bored tone. "Ah, Shujin-sama. No, I'm not home." They heard some grumbling on the other line. "I'm experimenting with a voice modulator again." More grumbling. "No, it's the 3rd time this week." A sigh. "Why did you call?" There was a long pause. "The boiler? Again?" There was a confirmation. Sighing Reaper started pacing back and forth. She paused and looked at the time. "15 minutes." A happy exclamation followed her words. "How much will that be off the rent?" A pause again before some grumbling. "15%." More grumbling. "20%." Both men heard an outraged shout. "Yes, I will keep increasing that." There was a pause and one word. Reaper nodded. "It was nice doing business with you." And the line went dead.

Both Yusei and Saiga stared at the dark rider. Finally, Saiga broke the silence.

"Did you just swindle your landlord?" He asked disbelievingly.

Reaper paused before shaking her head.

"No, negotiated a lower rent." She corrected the man before moving to take her laptop.

Closing the screen, she turned around and walked back to her d-wheel where she stored the computer away.

"Have to go. Need to fix the boiler." She said while putting away her phone in a separate compartment.

Realising Reaper was leaving, Yusei spoke up.

"Wait here." He speed walked over to his d-wheel. There he opened a compartment with a spare helmet and retrieved a heavy looking bundle. Turning around, he walked back to the entrance and placed into Reaper arms.

Confused Reaper looked up at him with a tilted head.

"It's a thank you, for your help." Yusei inclined for the other to open it.

Slowly Reaper unravelled the bundled and froze seeing what's inside. It was her old dual disk.

Still staring at it she asked.

"Where?"

"The kid who helped you in the bus collected all the pieces." the raven haired duellist answered. "I pieced them together but couldn't do anything about the glass."

Gingerly Reaper placed a finger on the blades and started tracing lines.

"Virgo, Gemini, Corvus, Draco, Canis Major, Ursa Minor." One by one she connected the dots on the picture of space, slowly forming constellations while ignoring the damaged paint. Then her fingers pressed onto the brightest dots. "Spica, Pollux, Gienah, Eltanin, Sirius…" She paused and traced a tear in the paint, her finger finally stopping in one spot. "Polaris."

All the while Yusei silently observed the dark rider's actions. Truthfully, he hadn't noticed that the stars weren't placed at random. Seeing this he felt a little bad that he couldn't fix the paint too.

"Sorry about the paint." He decided to voice his worries.

Reaper just shook her head.

"It's fine." Then she bowed in a traditional Japanese way. "Thank you very much, Fudo-san."

Yusei's brows creased into a frown.

"Yusei." He said making the other look up at him in question. "Call me Yusei."

The disguised girl stared at him for a second before nodding. Turning around she placed her duel disk into a compartment under her seat and closed it.

Honestly, she was happy. Not only did the night turned out fine but she also got to speak to the main character of the anime and get back her old duel disk. And her headache was gone.

Reaper glanced at the closed compartment. She though she lost the device a few month ago when it fell off the bridge. This was the first thing she had built in this new world, so it was no wonder that she went out of her way to make it as perfect as she could. So, it's no surprise that when the duel disk fell she became upset. She had tried to make another one, but they never quite reached the level that this one was. Now, seeing the device intact, even if some part will need to be repaired...

Under her mask Akira smiled a little.

Getting back into reality, the girl sat down and turned the bikes engine on. Before she left however she turned to Yusei and Saiga, who stood a little way back.

"Saiga-san, I'll be keeping the jammer for now." Then she looked at Yusei. "And thanks again. See you in Fortune Cup… Yusei."

Yusei responded with a nod and a small smile.

"Ah, see you."

Turning to face the road ahead, Reaper fully activated her d-wheel, it's green highlights coming to life, and with a kick sped off down the road.

There was a moment of silence as both Saiga and Yusei looked at where the dark rider has disappeared off to. It was broken by Saiga coming to stand next to the duellist.

"Interesting fellow, isn't 'he'?" He asked.

Yusei thought for a moment. Interesting was an underestimate. The dark rider seemed to make the word "unusual" into an art. From the brief conversation he had with Reaper, Yusei could tell that duellist while polite, intelligent and helpful was also very secretive, cautious and cunning. Very reckless too, if his stunts so far were any indication. Though his antics went a level above weird. Who throws heavy objects at people just to make them shut up?

Shaking his head, he nodded at Saiga before turning around to walk back into the garage. He paused before entering, for some reason Luca's words entered his mind.

" _Darkness… so much darkness, pain and loneliness… it's screaming… calling out to its friends… those who abandoned it in fear… The Shadow and its dragon."_

Looking back at the road Yusei frowned, the words "shadow" and "dragon" striking a chord in his mind.

'Does Reaper have anything to do with Signers?' he wondered to himself. And if he does, why is he so lonely and in pain?

His thoughts were interrupted by a very colourful array of curses suddenly coming from behind him. Shifting around he found Saiga glaring down the road where Reaper has ridden off.

"That brat, I know 'he' did it on purpose!" The man shouted.

Raising an eyebrow Yusei asked.

"Did what?"

Saiga pointed at his stomach.

"Distracted me from 'his' injuries and got away with it!"

Yusei's lips twitched into a smile as he turned back to the garage, leaving Saiga outside to throw around promises of vengeance.

'Well, at least the Fortune Cup won't be dull with him around.'

* * *

 **A.N.**

 **...somehow, I still ended up writing a lot more than I intended to. The counter's showing its almost 15K.**

 **...Kuso.**

 **Anyway, first things first, Japanese terms in the chapter:**

 ** _Shounen_ \- young boy**

 ** _Ojou_ \- young lady**

 ** _Ah_ \- yes**

 ** _Moshi_ _moshi_ \- a Japanese custom that is actually a shortened "I'm going to talk" but is used as "Hey" that people say when they answer the phone.**

 ** _Shujin_ \- Landlord/host**

 **There, I might be wrong on some of these. I don't really know the language itself, but hey, this might help for those that are confused.**

 **Btw, brownie points to those that recognised the ringtone song. For those who didn't: did you watch the 4kids version?**

 **Now then, the Marker Jamming. I won't go into details, because it would take hours to explain. Basically, I noticed while watching the anime that they basically only used one jamming technique. Overpowering the signal. Now, it might be effective, but we are talking about an technologically advanced world. So I'm guessing the Security have found a way to make radio frequency (just a guess at what signal markers emit) much more flexible. So then, with every marker renewing it's coding every 48 hours it become quite a hassle to jam the thing. This of course means that security have a beacon that catches the signals. Thus comes in Akira's solution. She basically tells to change the target of the signal. Be it a phone, tv, a d-wheel or even a duel disk, all it needs to have is a receiver and her theory works. Don't know if the thing would work in reality, skipped the class on that stuff last year.**

 **Crap am I tired. But need to finish this.**

 **The duel involving Lua. Yes! I really wanted to get the kid in there because it's kinda sad how in the anime he only ever wins 2 duels and it's only the crucial ones. I mean, come on, 150+ episodes and the kid always gets his butt handed to him? That's just sad. So yeah, I gave him some screen time.**

 **Last thing, at the beginning of the chapter I said I put a lot of though into what I write and that I leave traps for people. Guess what? I left a few in this chapter too. Its also an introduction to Akira's reason for being so knowledgeable. Here's a hint, think of what Akira's last name means.**

 **Phew, I wrote a lot today, I'll probably just go to sleep, it's almost 1AM here. On the side note, my Stardust Archetype is finally complete! Muhahaha! Unfortunately, after a store raid, I didn't find a Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon. Fortunately, some guy posted it a lot cheaper on ebay. Neheheh~**

 **Anyway, read and review, your opinion does matter... god do I sound like those politicians in elections... need to add something random... you know underwear? Well, they make candy ones these days. Ta~**


	5. MEET GREET!

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything (only my beloven phone Ivano, Boris the laptop and a secret stash of junk-food in my wardrobe). Everything ever used in the story belong to their rightful owners, except the OCs and mosquitoes. They are about to meet my dear friend sandal.**

 **Before anything, I realised that I was being an ass to all those that follow and favourite this story. So thanks guys and gals for the support! You're awesome too.**

 _ **Yoru no kodomo,**_ **thanks for the** **confirmation, glad I didn't mess up too much. About the pranks, funny thing, I had that part already written out before you asked the question, so it's no problem. And yes, the ringtone was the 2nd ending of the Japanese version of 5D's. Cross Game by Alice Nine. Nice job guessing that! Oh and about Ushio, don't worry, he will question her knowledge and I already have an idea of how that confrontation will end. Muhahah~ It's just that the guy only appears at the ending of Fortune Cup Arc, so it'll be a while before that.**

 **Now then, story time...**

* * *

With a loud yawn Akira threw her arms into the air and stretched. Hearing a satisfying pop from her spine, she relaxed deeply into her sofa. Since today was Sunday she didn't have to go to work. That, however, didn't mean that Akira spent all her day off lazing around.

Akira stared at her now completely fixed duel disk that lay on her table. All previous signs of damage were gone. She had replaced the shattered screen and redone the paint-job. Thanks to Yusei, all of the internal parts had been fixed, so she didn't need to touch anything there. Seriously, that guy was a miracle worker when it came to mechanics, it would have taken her tens of hours if not days to do what he probably did in an hour or so.

Sighing the girl turned her attention to the bar table near the kitchen where stood her laptop. Letters and numbers were quickly running through its screen. While Akira was busy fixing her duel disk the computer was tasked with doing complex calculations and adjustments. And it was almost done.

Standing up Akira walked over to the bar and leaned down do look at the results. A satisfied smile slowly spread over her features.

"Kuri?" A curious voice came from her shoulder.

"Ah, almost done." Akira answered to Rainbow Kuriboh who was currently curiously peaking over her shoulder.

"Kuri kuri."

"Yes, it's the permanent jammer."

"Kurrrriii."

"No, it won't be 'completely' done until tomorrow. I'll need Yusei to complete the adjustments and to install it." Akira finished and straightened.

She had earlier today created the software for a new jammer, one that could permanently disrupt the flow of signal. As promised, it would be done in two days, meaning tomorrow. For its completion she only needed Yusei or more specifically, his marker, the signals source, and his duel disk, where the signal will be redirected to. Her laptop was now running simulations and last minute adjustments, so she didn't really need to be present for this part.

Akira sighed a bit. While she could fix and build machines, she wasn't a genius. Sure, she could easily build a computer from scratch, but d-wheels and other more complex technology were another story. All she knew about this worlds technology, she knew from books and an agreement she had with her landlord. Books could only get you so far, so, in order to train and gain experience she had asked her landlord to occasionally give her things she could fix. The old man was sceptical at first, believing that she would mess things up more than they already were. And he was right, at first at least. The first few things she tried to repair ended up blowing up in her face, sometimes even catching on fire; she still couldn't understand how that cell phone did that. But after some more trials and errors she steadily improved and with it the number of failures lessened considerably. Seeing that it was a lot cheaper and quicker to ask Akira for help the agreement was eventually changed and now for every time the girl fixed something the reward was a reduction in monthly rent price. It was a win-win situation for her so she readily agreed with her landlord. Although, the young Shadow still "negotiated" about the reduction percentage every time.

Now, Akira had no problems repairing all kinds of machines, from cars to boilers. That still didn't mean she was anywhere near Yusei's or Bruno's level. Oh no, she needed these skills solely because she couldn't just walk into a repairs shop with Reaper's d-wheel or duel disk and ask for help. She would be hauled off into Detention Centre within second. Besides, programming was more her thing anyway, having learned it at a very early age she had a lot of experience with hacking and software designing. It never ceases to fascinate her how easy it was to make something happen hundreds of miles away with but a press of a single button.

Glancing at the wall with a clock, Akira spotted that it was only 5PM. She didn't really have anything else to do and didn't want to spend the rest of her afternoon before the tournament reading. Humming in thought, the girl quirked an eyebrow at the floating duel monster.

"Wanna go for a run?"

She was answered with happy chirping and tail waving.

* * *

Heavy huffs sounded in a mostly empty street as a figure continued running. Stopping to take a break the person used a nearby wall for support.

Under her hood Akira released a heavy sigh. She had been running a little over an hour now and this was the first real break she had to take. This wasn't the first time she ran this much. Back home in her dimension she used to do this every morning. Of course she didn't have work then so she had time for that. Now with everything happening the girl had to take a break from her usual workout. So it was no wonder that she was tired and sweating like a pig after running an hours run. Good thing she had the insight to change into her gym clothes, which consisted of a pair of green trainers, short black shorts, a black sports tank top and a light grey hooded jumper with bright green lines running over the seams. Her trusty headphones hung around her neck playing music, while on her hips hung a belt with an old deck box.

Out of habit Akira pulled her hood up further thus unintentionally hiding most of her face. Now that she thought about it, she had no idea where she was. She knew she started out by heading in the general direction of the poorer districts, less traffic and people. But somewhere along the way she got lost in her own thoughts and let the instincts lead her body. Looking around Akira saw no recognisable landmarks.

Her brows creased into a frown. Great, she was lost. She silently noted to take a map next time. Sighing the Shadow decided to look for people to ask for directions. Hopefully, she could avoid the more unsavoury company as, if she guessed right, she was in more of the run down districts.

It didn't take her long to find some people. Or more like a whole crowd. Walking into the wide area Akira silently approached them, curious as to what was going on. All around people were screaming, hooting and cheering as some two guys who were duelling on a raised platform. Akira noted that most of them had markers. Nonetheless, they seemed to be genuinely having fun. She quirked a small amused smile when she spotted a group of drunk guys trying and failing miserably to make a cheerleader pyramid of to the side.

Suddenly, the girl stopped, a thoughtful expression overtaking her features. Now that she thought about it, this all looked strangely famil-

"-in and out of the city and Satellite."

Akira stiffened when a familiar voice reached her ears.

"Officially, yes. But there's a ship working on the system that sends out, reproduces and returns trash coming. I bargained so they would let me go aboard."

Carefully the girl turned her head to peak over her shoulder.

"That's the Jack of All Trades for you. There is nothing he can't do."

'Crap.' She thought.

A few yards away behind her stood a group of very recognisable men. One was tall and buff with spiked up teal coloured hair. Two markers went down from either side of his nose bridge. She recognised the man as Himuro Jin, the former pro duellist. To his right stood a familiar mop of brown hair belonging to Saiga. A little away from him stood old man Yanagi. And of course the centre of the group was occupied by Fudo Yusei, the main character of the whole series and the guy she helped out yesterday.

"I could do it since this city has gathered all the right reasons."

Akira quickly whipped around to face the front when they looked in the crowd's direction, silently praying to every deity out there that they wouldn't notice her. How did this even happen?! She didn't have any intentions of being here for this part, but somehow during her run she ended up doing just that.

Thankfully, the group seemed to be more inclined to observe the crowd. Slowly, Akira crept to the side, all the while keeping a close eye on the group. Reaching an alley entrance, she wasted no time in diving into it and pressing her back against the wall.

'Close.' She released a sigh of relief.

While there wouldn't be any real problems meeting them, Akira would rather be safe than sorry. After all, it wouldn't do her any good if Yusei recognised her as Reaper… or if Yanagi decided to glom her again. Still, she'll stay and watch, just in case something went wrong.

Peering out of the alleys corner she noticed that the group were now joined by 2 children. One had green-blue hair pulled up into a ponytail, while the other sported bowl cut brown hair and wore glasses.

'Lua and Tenpei.' She recognised them.

She watched as Lua excitedly introduced his nervous friend, before starting to jump happily around. Her eyes narrowed.

'Any time now.'

The next instant Yusei doubled over in pain while clutching his arm. Akira felt her own mark heat up under an arm guard she wore. She refrained from crinkling and instead chose to focus on the twister that appeared in the duelling platform. Moments later thorns started tearing apart the area, some of them burying deeply into the building walls. The Shadow grit her teeth as she covered her eyes from the dust that sat in. This was a lot more dangerous than the anime showed.

Just then within the dust a monster showed up, raising its head to release a mighty roar.

The pain intensified, but still she ignored it in favour of staring at the dragon.

'Black Rose Dragon.' She thought.

She quickly covered her eyes to avoid being blinded by the light that flooded the area. Blinking away the spots in her sight she looked up just in time to see Yusei and Lua run into the dust.

'Sure, run right to the monster that just destroyed everything around you. What could possibly go wrong?' She thought sarcastically slightly annoyed by their behaviour.

The dust finally settled down to reveal the Black Rose Witch herself. Her whole body was hidden by a long black cloak, only showing her masked face, red hair and a red duel disk. The dragon was nowhere in sight. Akira watched as the group caught up with Lua and Yusei. She tensed. For some reason, her gut was telling her that it wasn't over yet.

At that moment the Witch noticed the dragon's birthmark glowing brightly on Yusei's right forearm.

"You as well?" She asked with slight disbelief.

Looking down the Satellite realised the cloaked woman was talking about his birthmark.

"You as well?" He repeated her words and started walking towards her.

The Witch suddenly became enraged.

"Wretched mark!" She screamed drawing and activating a card. Seconds later a glowing twister surrounded her, causing a strong wind to suddenly pick up.

It was then that Akira heard it. An unmistakable sound of glass shattering. Her eyes widened in alarm as she whipped around in search for the source. She found it instantly. The bottles the drunks left behind were all broken. And their shards were now being picked up by the wind, about to fly straight at the those left in the area. Namely, Yusei's group. Blinded by the light they would be easy targets!

'That… that didn't happen in the anime!'

Akira's body was moving before it even registered in her mind. Thanks to her hood, she could see somewhat clearly. Quickly running over to them, she jumped into the air, plan already in mind. Yusei, being the closest to the twister, wouldn't be able to dodge in time. So, she'll have help with that.

Yusei only had the time to see a dark blur appear out of nowhere before he felt a powerful tug at the back of his jackets collar and was sent flying back. Fortunately for him, Saiga was behind him so he was caught.

She landed on the destroyed arena and spinning around, Akira shouted at them.

"DUCK, NOW!" Before she grabbed the hands of the two young boys and pressed them down onto the ground, using her own body as a shield to protect them. She bit her lower lip to stop herself from crying out when she felt a few shards dig deeply into her left shoulder.

Even if they couldn't see, the others, upon hearing the alarm in her voice, obeyed immediately, dropping to the ground just in time to avoid a deadly rain of glass.

The light finally stopped, wind going away with it, leaving the group mostly unharmed. Slowly they picked themselves up from the ground, Saiga helping Yusei stand up after being thrown.

"Is everyone alright?" Yusei asked once he stood upright.

"Yeah, takes more than a breeze to take me down." Said Himuro boisterously. Although, you could tell that the man was freaked out by just how pale he became, upon seeing the glass shards that now laid on the ground behind them.

"Everything's fine 'ere, sonny." Came Yanagi's answer.

Saiga simply nodded, he wasn't really paying attention to them, instead staring at something off to the side.

Himuro chose that moment to speak, successfully drawing everyone's attention back to where second's ago stood the infamous witch.

"She's gone."

"What th'heck was that? How was she able to blow us back with her Magic card's power, even though it's just solid vision?!" Exclaimed Yanagi as they walked up to the still silent Yusei.

Instead of saying anything, Yusei raised his arm, showing an unmarked forearm.

"Ah, it's gone! That's a shame!" Yanagi sounded disappointed.

"I'm positive… the Witch has a birthmark too." Yusei spoke closing his eyes. Around him, his friends gasped in surprise.

"The Witch said, 'you as well'."

They stared for a moment where the cloaked woman once stood, thinking of what this could all mean. Their thoughts were interrupted by a soft voice speaking from behind them.

"Are you okay?"

Yusei's eyes widened.

'The kids!'

The group whipped around to look for Lua and Tenpei. They found the two boys being helped up by a hooded figure.

"Y-yeah, thanks for that." Said Lua once he could stand on his own. Tenpei nodded, still scared by what has transpired.

The figure sighed in relief.

"That's good." She said.

Yanagi blinked, his eyebrows creasing in thought before his eyes suddenly widened.

"That voice, it can't be… Akira-chan?" He asked hopefully.

The hooded person went rigid, making Yanagi grin, before the old man surprised everyone by suddenly taking off running towards the figure.

Under her hood Akira's eyes widened in alarm. She knew what was coming next and would rather avoid it at all cost.

'Think fast!' She mentally screamed, before her eyes landed on Lua. 'Well, I was planning on pranking him anyway.'

Grasping both of the boy's shoulders Akira quickly spun around to face an incoming missile known as Yanagi, placing the boy in her previous position, and jumped back.

"AKIRAAAA-CHAAAAN!"

Lua only had the time to release a confused "Eh?" before two arms enveloped him into a tight hug.

Yanagi for his part blinked a couple of times confused, realising that something is not right, before he looked down and was met with two golden orbs. They stared, and stared, and stared.

With a scream both the old man and the young boy jumped away from one another. The old man quickly recovered and started looking around frantically.

"Eeeehh, where d'she go?"

Saiga, who has been tracking the young woman with his eyes ever since her unexpected appearance, got an evil idea.

'That's for yesterday, brat.' He thought as he pointed his finger at a quickly retreating figure. Seeing the speed walking girl again Yanagi wasted no time in running over and glomming the person from the behind.

Akira's eyes bulged out as she felt pressure on her still healing sides. That, coupled with the hug from behind, resulted in a loss of balance and both the eccentric old timer and the hooded girl toppled over. Even then she instantly started struggling to get away.

"AKIRA-CHAN!"

"Get off of me!"

"I haven' seen you in more than a week!"

"Let go!"

"Oh don'be so cold, lass!"

"I said, GET OFF!"

The rest watched the spectacle in various degrees of deadpan or pity. They didn't know if they should laugh or try to stop the struggle in front of him.

Something on the ground caught Lua's attention and he looked down. A gasp had everyone turning to look at the young boy.

Lua pointed his finger.

"B-blood, there's blood on the ground!" He exclaimed. The men's eyes widened in alarm and looking down themselves they too saw a trail of blood on the ground. Their eyes followed the drops until their eyes landed on the hooded girl.

With a heave, Akira finally managed to pull Yanagi off her. She sat up on the ground and winced when she felt the shards dig even deeper into her skin.

"A-ah, Akira-chan, ya're bleeding!" Yanagi quickly sprang up to his feet.

Akira looked down at her left arm. Sure enough, blood was slowly dripping down from her shoulder and onto the ground. Annoyed, she tried to shake it off. She really didn't want anyone to start fretting about something like this.

"No, don' do that, lass! Ya'll make it worse!"

The group ran over to the duo. Crouching down Yusei tried to catch the sitting girl's eyes.

"Where are you hurt?" He asked worriedly.

Akira released an irritated breath.

"It's nothing." She mumbled and moved to stand.

Snorting, Saiga walked over to stand behind her. Before the girl could react, the man gripped one of her sleeves and with a jerk revealed a bloody shoulder. The sight had everyone staring in slight horror. Shards of glass were deeply embedded into the flesh resulting in a slow but steady flow of blood down the length of Akira's arm.

"It's not nothing if it's bleeding like that, you idiot." He said gruffly.

Akira just chose to silently glare at the man.

"We have to stop the blood or it'll get worse." Yusei said with a frown as he inspected the wounds.

"Yeah, but there's nothing to bandage it with." Himuro frowned.

Seeing they wouldn't let her go without taking care of her shoulder, Akira huffed and carefully shrugged off her jumper.

"Here." She passed it off to Yusei. "Use this."

For a moment there was silence as they stared at her now uncovered face. Irritated Akira scowled lightly at them.

"What?" She asked.

"Aren't you the looker, girly?" Himuro released a whistle. He was rewarded with a glare. Raising his hands in surrender motion he took a step back, intimidated by her unnaturally green eyes. "I'm just saying!"

Akira opened her mouth to tell him off when she suddenly gasped, feeling sharp pain in her shoulder. Turning to peer behind her she saw Saiga remove one of the shards.

"Don't move around too much. This might take a while." He said to her as he grasped another piece of glass. Then he looked at Yusei. "Yusei, I'll need help with some of these, you're the only one with gloves here."

Nodding the turbo duelist walked over to Saiga and started helping taking out smaller and sharper shards.

Grimacing Akira turned back to the front.

"Akira-chan, what were ya doin' 'ere?" Yanagi asked her to keep her occupied and distracted from pain.

"Running." She answered him calmly, having returned to her calm character.

"At this hour?" Himuro injected, catching onto the old man's plan.

"Have nothing better to do until the night." She shrugged with one shoulder.

Yanagi blinked a couple of time confused.

"Until the nigh- oooh." His eyes widened in realisation and he grinned. "Ya're going tonight?"

Akira simply nodded before wincing as another shard was pulled out.

"Just two small ones left, bear with this a little more." Saiga told her as he let Yusei take out the glass.

"Going where?" Lua decided to enter the conversation.

The girl huffed and turned away from them, making Yanagi laugh at her embarrassment. Grinning he tried explaining to others.

"Akira-chan 'ere likes to go stargazing, she even owns a telescope!" The eccentric old man started talking. "In fact, th'lass loves astronomy and wanted to be part of th'space program! Ya should see how her eyes light up when ya mentio- wow!" Yanagi exclaimed as he ducked a rock thrown at him.

"Oi, ji-san, stop telling them my life story." Akira stated calmly but with traces of irritation in her voice.

"But, lass, it's true!"

"Don't care, they're strangers."

"But I know them."

"I don't." She finished before looking over her shoulder.

"How is it?" The girl asked those behind her. Yusei looked up from his work.

"We took out the shards, all that's left is to disinfect and bandage your shoulder." He answered her evenly. Seeing her searching with her eyes he added. "Saiga went to get something to clean the wound with."

Akira nodded before looking up at the sky thoughtfully. There was a moment of silence before it was broken by Yusei.

"You know astronomy?"

Blinking Akira's eyes once again fell on him. She stared for a second before nodding calmly. Frowning Yusei decided to ask what's been bothering him since yesterday.

"Virgo, Gemini, Corvus, Draco, Canis Major, Ursa Minor, Spica, Pollux, Gienah, Eltanin, Sirius, Polaris." He listed the names one after another. He didn't notice how Akira went progressively more stiff after every name. She forced herself to relax when his eyes met hers. "Do you know anything about them?"

Akira stared at him for a moment, surprised that he would remember those names. Truthfully, she found the whole situation ironic. Here Yusei was asking her, who secretly was Reaper, about something a person, who was actually her, said yesterday. Gulping, the girl nodded and answered.

"Those are constellation and their brightest stars." She started. "Virgo the Maiden, Gemini the Twins, Corvus the Crow, Draco the Dragon, Canis Major the Great Dog and Ursa Minor the Little Bear." She took a breath and continued. "The others are the names of the brightest stars in those constellations. While the stars have stories and myths about them only two really stand out these days."

Seeing that Yusei was listening to her with rapt attention she decided to explain. "Sirius and Polaris. The brightest stars of Canis Major and Ursa Minor respectably. Sirius or Dog Star is known as the brightest star in the sky, it's actually a star system consisting of two stars circling one another. There's a theory that it's part of a star cluster. It's at the tip of the Great Dogs nose. Polaris, however, is known as the guiding star. It's very close to the centre of North Pole so it's easy to find out where north is just by looking at it in the sky. It represents the end of Little Bears tail and is usually used to find Ursa Major, the Great Bear." Akira finished.

A silence followed her explanation. It was interrupted by an impressed whistle.

"The old man wasn't kidding when he said you loved astronomy." Said Himuro.

Akira's eyes widened and her cheeks heated up in embarrassment when she realised that everyone heard her rambling. She was spared any further humiliation by Saiga returning with a bottle of clear liquid. The girl eyed the bottle suspiciously, having an idea of what it was and if she was right, this was going to hurt like hell.

Crouching down Saiga handed the bottle to Yusei, who raised an eyebrow in question.

"I asked for some vodka from the guys around, this should word better than any disinfectant." He explained before turning to Akira who was now staring at him wide eyed. "Ah, seems like someone realises what this means."

The girl quickly turned away from them.

"Please make this quick." She mumbled before placing her right hand over her mouth.

Nodding Yusei unscrewed the bottle and poured its contents over the wounds. Akira flinched violently and hissed when she felt a burning sting in her shoulder. Wasting no time, Saiga ripped a piece of her jumper and started doing make shift bandages. After a minute or so the shoulder was securely covered in layers of cloth.

"There, this should hold for a while." Saiga said as he picked himself of the ground while Yusei helped Akira stand up. Once upright, the girl experimentally moved her shoulder around before nodding and facing them.

"Thanks." She said honestly.

Saiga waved his hand dismissively.

"Just make sure you don't do something like that ever again."

She didn't answer that, not that the man expected her too, knowing full well that his request would most likely be ignored and very quickly at that.

Yanagi suddenly jumped up.

"That's right, I didn' even introduce ya all." The old man exclaimed. He started by pointing at the nearest person to him, which happened to be Himuro.

"That's Himuro Jin, a former pro turbo duelist."

The man raised his hand and waved, a disinterested expression on his face.

"Yo."

"That's Saiga, he's the Jack of All Trades."

Saiga raised an amused eyebrow when Akira shot him a look.

Yanagi then pointed at Yusei.

"And that's Fudo Yusei. Sonny 'ere, helped me out in Detention Centre."

Yusei nodded at her in greeting.

"Hello."

Lua then suddenly shoved past the old man and grinned up at the girl.

"Hi, name's Lua! And that's my best friend Tenpei over there." He pointed at the reluctant boy behind them who waved his hand hesitantly when he saw Akira's eyes on him.

The girl sighed. Now they didn't really give her a choice here. Especially with their expectant stares.

She pressed a hand on her headphones to keep them from hitting her face and bowed to them formally.

"Hoshikoka Akira, douzo yorashiku." She said calmly straightening up.

A small object on her belt caught Lua's attention. His eyes widened and mouth formed into an "o". Pointing his finger at her he exclaimed.

"Lady, you're a duelist?!"

This caught everyone's attention. Sure enough, on her hip hung an old beat up deck box. Akira frowned, putting her hand over it and reluctantly nodded at the boy twin. This didn't seem to register in Lua's mind as he grinned and shoved his newly customised duel disk in front of him.

"Awesome, duel me!"

"No." She answered him promptly.

"But duelists can't refuse a challenge."

"I just did."

"Just one duel, please!" The boy started begging.

Himuro burst out laughing.

"Give up, girly. He's not about to give up." He told her.

Akira scowled at him, not liking how he called her.

"I have a name. Use it, porcupine."

"P-porcupine?!" The former pro duelist sputtered.

"Yes, with hair and a face like that, what else could you possibly be?"

"You brat-"

"And your breath stinks, when was the last time you brushed your teeth?"

"I-"

"Wait, don't answer that, I don't want to be traumatised."

Off to the side Yusei, Saiga and Yanagi stood watching Himuro get insulted over and over again and Lua jumping around, demanding for a duel, only to get ignored.

"They seem to have forgotten about her shoulder or the fact that we're here." Commented Saiga. "Man, that girl's a riot. Look at how red Himuro's turning."

Yanagi shrugged helplessly.

"That's Akira-chan for ya, she just… has a way of drawing people to her." Himuro got kicked in the shin. "Even if it's unorthodox."

Quirking an eyebrow Yusei looked down at the old man curiously.

"You seem to know her well." He said.

Yanagi smiled happily when he remembered their meeting.

"Akira-chan helped get my cards back when they were taken away about 6 months ago. Been visitin' her ever since." He chuckled when he saw Himuro yell something at Akita while she just stared at him calmly. "That girl might seem cold and indifferent at times but, funny thing's, it's the opposite." Looking up at Yusei, he grinned. "Ya just have t'know how to talk with her." Akira viciously stomped on Himuro's foot. "Well, and don' annoy her, lass can be very scary and vicious when she wants ta." Yanagi ended with a shudder.

'No kidding.' Saiga silently added in his mind, remembering what the girl did to that security officer.

A beeping had Akira blinking. Looking down she started rummaging through her pockets.

"Oi, girly, are you even listening?!"

She ignored Himuro's yells and took out her phone.

'Almost 8PM.' Akira thought absently. Putting away her phone she walked past the former pro.

"Ji-san," She called out, drawing the attention of the others. The girl motioned with her thumb over her shoulder. "have to go."

Blinking Yanagi asked.

"Already?" He sounded disappointed.

"It's almost 8." Akira reasoned before rotating her bandaged shoulder. "And I still need to rewrap this."

Yanagi opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a shout.

"Wait, we haven't even duelled yet!" Lua ran up to them.

Looking down Akira raised an eyebrow.

"Shouldn't you be at home?" Seeing the confused look, she pointed at the rapidly darkening sky "It's late."

Lua's eyes widened before he turned around and grabbing his friends hand started running out of the area.

"Crap, Luca's going to kill me! Bye Yusei, see you tomorrow!" He added over his shoulder before disappearing behind a corner.

Sighing Akira turned back to the group.

"I'll be taking my leave." She paused before adding. "And thanks for the bandages. It was nice meeting you." She turned around and started walking away.

Himuro grumbled, still sore from the insults, while Saiga and Yusei nodded.

"Bye bye, Akira-chan! I'll be coming by some time and be safe!" Yanagi jumped up waving enthusiastically at the retreating girl.

"See ya, Old man." Akira called out before rounding a corner and leaving the area.

For a moment there was silence before it was broken by Yusei's loud intake of breath. Moments later he started to run in the direction the girl has disappeared off too.

"Wait, Yusei, where are you going?!" Saiga called out.

"I forgot something, wait here!" He answered over his shoulder before running off.

* * *

Akira huffed as she adjusted the make shift bandages on her shoulder. This was going to be troublesome. She had no plans of getting anymore hurt but who would have guessed that something like deadly flying glass shards would appear.

The girl frowned deep in thought. This… didn't happen in the anime. In fact, there rarely were any injuries during all the confrontations in the whole series. So how is that she ended up with a cut up shoulder? Suddenly Akira remembered something.

 _"As you know, there are endless possibilities. While the main events do come to pass they might not end as you know them."_

 _"-your presence might affect some events. For example, while the 'main' events are still be mostly unaffected, some 'side' events might play out differently from how you know them or cease to exist all together, while new ones might appear at any time. So do be careful, you'll never know when trouble comes your way."_

The Crimson Dragon's words entered her mind and her eyes widened when she realised something.

'The events, they're already changing.'

This could be bad. While she knew about all of the events, having watched all of the episodes, with these changes there was no telling what might happen. Meaning that she couldn't completely rely on her knowledge. If similar incidents like with the glass might occur, she'll have to be a lot more careful than she first thought. At least it was just her shoulder and not somebodies face that got busted.

Akira paused in her walk when a thought struck her.

'How the heck did I even end up in that place and at the right time?'

After all, the chances of something like this happening were so slim they were pretty much nonexistent. All she did was run and let her instincts… take… over…

The Shadow quickly whipped around and glared heatedly at the sky.

'Lizard!'

Oh, she just knew that overgrown reptile had something to with this. There was just no way this could have happened by itself! Her glare only hardened when she felt that someone was laughing at her.

'Yes, laugh it up, just wait until I get my hands on some gunpowder and chilly souse, we'll see who's laughing then.'

Her malicious thoughts were interrupted by the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps. Blinking away the glare she looked down and her eyes widened seeing a slightly out of breath Yusei standing behind her.

Confused she tilted her head to the side.

"Fudo-san?" She asked.

"I… wanted to thank you." He said as he regained normal breathing.

Akira's eyebrows creased together in thought.

"For what?" She didn't know what she could have possibly done to warrant a thank you.

"For shoving me out of the way of the shards." He started. "If they had hit I probably wouldn't be standing right now."

The girl's eyes widened and her mouth formed a small "o" in realisation.

'Oh, **that**.'

She quickly shook her head.

"It was nothing."

Yusei rewarded with a pointed stare at her bandaged shoulder.

"It wasn't nothing if you got hurt." He pointed out.

"It's just a flesh wound, they heal, thus nothing." She countered.

"It still hurts."

"Not if you ignore it."

They stared at one another for a moment, both too stubborn to just give up.

"I'm still grateful." Yusei finally spoke.

Akira nodded.

"And you showed that by helping with this." She moved her injured shoulder. "So, we're even."

Yusei stared at Akira with a frown. It was like the girl in front of him didn't want others to care or worry for her and was actively trying to keep people away from her. With how adamant she was in denying that what she did had any worth, it wasn't that hard to believe.

"Fudo-san," He looked up at her. "You should get back to your friends, they're probably getting worried."

He frowned.

"Are you going to be okay? Your parents will be worried when they see your shoulder."

Akira just turned away and started walking.

"No they won't." She looked over her shoulder straight him in the eyes. "After all, the dead have no worries."

Hearing her last words Yusei's eyes widened and he opened his mouth to apologise but Akira just shook her head and turned away.

"Goodbye, Fudo-san."

Yusei stood there watching the strange girl leave. He really wanted to hit himself for that last part, knowing full well that it was a taboo to bring up something like dead parents to an orphan. To be fair, he didn't know but it was still no excuse on his part. Sighing heavily, he turned to leave when something flickered in a corner of his eyes.

Whipping around Yusei took a double take but found nothing. He stared in the direction Akira has disappeared off to for a second before shaking his head and leaving.

Maybe he was just too tired of today's events if he was starting to see giant shadowy creatures with glaring blue eyes.

* * *

A few blocks away Akira stopped walking and started cursing when she realised a small but very important fact.

She was still lost.

* * *

 **A.N.**

 **Japanese terms:  
**

 _ **Douzo** **yorashiku**_ **\- "It's nice to meet you" in a more informal way.**

 **So this wasn't a very long chapter. In fact, this was the shortest one I've written so far. This was mainly because there was not much left to write in the Pre-Fortune Cup arc.**

 **Why did I write this if it was so short? Simple, it had some importance to the events to come. Probably the most important parts being Akira's meeting with Yusei as a civilian and the realisation that events were changing.**

 **Although, at first I wanted to add a duel in here, probably against Himuro because the guy didn't get to duel against Yusei, in the end. But then I realised that it wouldn't really have any relevance to the story itself and would just serve to show off Akira's actual deck, nothing more. Unlike Reaper, Akira doesn't have to fight, nor does she need to be seen as a strong duelist. Besides, she's not the hot-blooded type that jumps at every challenge. She actually thinks... most of the time... yeah...**

 **Also, there, you have it, the reason why Akira know's so much stuff about advanced physics, hacking and is physically strong. Now the question is, why does she want to be part of the space program? Or rather, wantED. But that's a story for another time.**

 **Now then, I'm not going to have Yusei instantly figure out that Akira and Reaper are the same person. Oh no no no no, this is probably going to be long process and I'm still playing around with some of the ideas surrounding it. But he will, eventually. The guy's a genius, for Ra's sake. It would be weird if he didn't.**

 **Next chapter is the start of the Fortune Cup and knowing me, it's probably going to be a long one, definitely with some Akira induced chaos. There are plenty of reasons for her to get annoyed and when she is annoyed, well you saw yourselves how it usually ends. Just a quick warning, I might be fired up to write it, but I'm in the middle of exams, so I might take a while.**

 **Anyway, read and review, ask you're questions, I'm definitely not trying to find a reason not to study for my exams. Ta~**


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